The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health and the Alabama Perinatal Quality Collaborative announced Tuesday that they will take the lead on a new task force dedicated to improving maternal health across the state.

The Alabama Maternal Health Task Force will be formed under a five-year grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. Members will collect enhanced state-level data, help expand the workforce surrounding maternal health, assist with training needs and pursue access to high-quality clinical care, including telehealth options.

“Maternal health, women’s health – that certainly boosts all our health when we when we get down to it,” said Martha Wingate, the director of the initiative and chair of the UAB School of Public Health Department of Health Policy and Organization.

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Wingate also works on the state’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee, and said that the task force will work closely with the MMRC.

She said the task force will pull together leaders across the state “so that we’re good stewards of our resources, and making sure that we’re not duplicating and really trying to work collaboratively.”

The task force should be up and running within the next year and will start on a strategic plan, Wingate said.

Alabama ranks third-worst in the United States when it comes to maternal mortality and sixth worst in infant mortality. The MMRC has released two reports since its creation in 2018, detailing deaths from 2016 and 2017. Both reports showed high numbers of co-morbidities, struggles with substance use disorders and cardiovascular health and revealed that the majority of women who died within a year of giving birth used Medicaid.

Wingate said it’s important to remember that improving maternal health in Alabama is a complex issue that brings together challenges like infrastructure, access and geographic location.

“It’s also not just clinical care,” she said. “There’s not one answer. There’s a lot of different things that need to come together.”

Wingate said the task force will attempt to move forward with some of the health care recommendations from MMRC reports and added that she hopes to engage nurse midwives, as well as to expand doula care and telehealth throughout the state.

The task force is supported by the Alabama Department of Public Health, Alabama Hospital Association, Alabama Department of Mental Health Services and the March of Dimes, among others.

Sarah Swetlik is a gender and politics reporter at AL.com. She is supported through a partnership with Report for America. Contribute to support the team here.