The week you bring your precious child home from the hospital, your phone fills with congratulations and, if you’re truly fortunate, your porch fills up with food from friends.
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porch → bring → friends
Everybody wants to know how the baby is sleeping and whether she has her dad’s nose.
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she → want → nose
Fewer people ask the other question: how is her mother doing?
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mother → ask → question
Scripture tells us numerous stories about God’s provision for women who pray for His blessing.
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who → tell → blessing
Hannah, who struggles with infertility, is blessed with a son, Samuel.
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who → struggle → son
Sarah was 90 when her son Isaac was born, after believing for decades she would never conceive.
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she → bear → decades
And of course, God provides for Mary of Nazareth through the miracle of her conception and birth of His son, Jesus Christ.
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God → provide → son
Throughout Scripture, the Lord consistently reminds us that his provision, grace, and faithfulness are evident in the many different phases of motherhood.
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provision → remind → motherhood
In Ephesians 5:1, the Apostle Paul calls on believers in Christ to “Follow God’s example therefore, as dearly loved children, and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us.”
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Christ → call → us
Caring for mothers across all stages of life is just one way we as Christians can follow God’s example.
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we → care → example
Practically, I believe this includes ensuring underutilized resources reach America’s mothers.
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resources → believe → mothers
Across our nation, we know that the resources for many struggling mothers are already here: a pharmacy down the road can run a blood pressure test; a telehealth line can conduct a quick, convenient, and private check-in.
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line → know → in
Community health centers can be equipped to handle the most common problems that arise, and our churches can also play a vital role.
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churches → equip → role
One of my top priorities in the Senate is raising awareness of these resources and finding avenues for them to become more accessible.
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them → raise → avenues
The United States — the most blessed and prosperous nation in human history — has the highest rate of maternal mortality of any developed country, even though we spend more on healthcare than any nation on Earth.
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we → have → Earth
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 8 in 10 of these deaths are preventable.
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10 → accord → deaths
And deaths are only the beginning: every year, tens of thousands of American women nearly die — they hemorrhage, suffer strokes and heart failure, or leave the hospital with injuries that follow them for years.
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that → die → years
Most of these struggles come in the weeks and months after a mom goes home — after the congratulations stop, after everyone around her assumes mother and child are doing fine.
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mother → come → her
These complications can include bleeding, heart problems, high blood pressure, infection, and depression; problems we know how to treat if someone catches them in time.
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someone → include → time
Catching them isn’t complicated or expensive; it just takes a postpartum checkup, where somebody takes a woman’s blood pressure, screens for depression, or asks how she is really doing.
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she → catch → depression
Yet roughly 40% of American mothers never make it to that appointment.
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% → make → appointment
Plenty could not get there if they tried, since in well over half of our country’s rural counties, there is no hospital delivering babies and no obstetric provider at all.
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they → get → babies
In parts of Alabama, a checkup can mean an hour in the car each way.
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checkup → mean → car
That’s why I introduced the More Opportunities for Moms to Succeed, or MOMS, Act in the Senate to ensure moms have the resources they need, including prenatal, postpartum, and early childhood development care, telehealth when the nearest specialist is a county away, and support for community and faith-based organizations.
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specialist → ’ → organizations
And it’s why I joined a bipartisan group of colleagues on the Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act, which trains and equips rural hospitals to handle obstetric emergencies.
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which → ’ → emergencies
I am also proud to lead the NIH IMPROVE Act, which would authorize the only dedicated federal research aimed at solutions for the maternal mortality crisis.
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which → lead → crisis
Today, when a new mother leaves the hospital, our healthcare system can lose sight of her.
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system → leave → her
This causes many problems for families that could have effectively and inexpensively prevented a complication had a woman seen a healthcare provider earlier.
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woman → cause → provider
Of course, our government cannot be the whole solution, but we can help spark the change.
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we → help → change
Earlier this year, the Trump administration did just that by launching Moms.Gov, an initiative included in my MOMS Act that provides a one-stop shop for mothers to access underutilized resources.
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mothers → do → resources
I’m also grateful for partners such as Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America, who understand that protecting moms and babies isn’t a red or blue issue — it’s an American issue.
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it → ’m → moms
In the Senate, I remain laser-focused on passing the MOMS Act, the Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act, and the NIH IMPROVE Act this year.
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I → remain → Act
To be truly pro-life is to protect the baby and the mother throughout a woman’s pregnancy journey, in the delivery room, and in the years that follow.
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that → protect → years
If there is a new mother in your community, ask about her — be the one who sees her.
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who → be → her
Then tell our government that we expect the same.
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we → tell → same
Our country should be the safest place in the world to have a baby — one of my top priorities is making that a reality.
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that → have → priorities
Katie Britt is a senator representing the state of Alabama.
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Britt → represent → Alabama
The Aporia
