Submitted
(Left-right) M.D., SVMC OB/GYN’s Kimberley Sampson, MD, U.S. Congressman Peter Welch, Alison Lutz, MD, and Malcolm Paine, MD.
Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC) OB/GYN’s Kimberley Sampson, MD, and Malcolm Paine, MD, joined Alison Lutz, MD, Resident at UVM, and U.S. Congressman for Vermont Peter Welch in Washington, DC, last month to discuss rising maternal mortality in the United States.
The two traveled from Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Putnam Physicians in Bennington to the capitol as a part of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ (ACOG) effort to attract co-sponsors for the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act.
They also met with staff from the offices of Senators Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy.
“Our country has the highest rate among developed countries of mothers dying during childbirth and within a year afterwards,” Sampson explained. “We’d like to empower states to discover the reasons why and reverse the trend.”
The act would provide a $7 million annual authorization to help states collect data, recommend locally relevant strategies, and report to Congress regarding the programs’ successes.
