Paid Leave Must be a Priority for Pennsylvania's Maternal Health

By: Sara Jann Heinze, MCC's Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy

Maternal mortality is widely considered a bellwether indicator of the health and well-being of a society. Understanding the causes of maternal mortality helps us understand not only the quality of our healthcare system, but also the broader social and economic conditions in which families live and raise children.

Over the last decade, growing attention and alarm have focused on maternal mortality in the United States, particularly how far our rates exceed those of our peer countries. Almost universally, the same puzzle is presented: Why are mothers dying at such high rates in the richest country in the world?

The lack of access to comprehensive health care and the persistent effects of structural racism absolutely shape birth outcomes. But America's maternal health crisis is also significantly influenced by the conditions in which people are having and raising babies. Even the most advanced healthcare system cannot overcome economic insecurity, inadequate housing, unaffordable childcare, or the inability to take time away from work to recover from childbirth or care for a new baby. Here in Pennsylvania, our failure to adequately address these structural conditions has limited our progress, and our own maternal health infrastructure is telling us what needs to change.

The newest report from the Philadelphia Maternal Mortality Review Committee makes clear that the worst birth outcomes are concentrated in our poorest neighborhoods. It explicitly identifies paid leave, improved economic security, and housing supports as necessary long-term strategies to improve birth outcomes. The Pennsylvania Department of Health's Family Health Needs Assessment survey similarly identifies unmet health-related social needs, including paid leave, housing, childcare, and transportation, as significant challenges for families. These needs are also highlighted in the Pennsylvania Maternal Health Strategic Action Report.

The message from maternal health experts, families, and public health institutions is remarkably consistent: improving maternal health requires more than improving healthcare. It requires policies that give families the economic security and support they need to have healthy pregnancies, recover from childbirth, and care for their children.

The question is no longer whether we know what policies can improve maternal health. It is whether we are ready to make those policies a priority.

Paid family and medical leave is one of the clearest places to start. Establishing a statewide paid leave program is a concrete policy solution that lawmakers have the authority to advance. A statewide program would give workers the ability to take time away from work to recover from childbirth, bond with a new child, care for a seriously ill family member, or address their own serious health needs without having to choose between their health and their paycheck.

Pennsylvania finds itself at an important political moment, and there is a renewed opportunity to move longstanding policy priorities forward. This creates an opening for state leaders to demonstrate that improving maternal health means addressing the economic and social conditions that shape health long before someone enters a delivery room. Paid family and medical leave should be at the top of that agenda.

Paid leave is more than a workforce issue. It is a maternal health policy, an infant health policy, and a family health policy. It is also an investment in the economic security of working people across Pennsylvania.

The evidence is clear. Families have identified the need. Public health experts have made the recommendations. What Pennsylvania needs now is the political will to act on what we already know.

It is time for Pennsylvania to make paid family and medical leave a top legislative priority. Our elected leaders have an opportunity to turn years of research, recommendations, and advocacy into meaningful action. We should expect them to seize it. Healthy pregnancies, healthy babies, and economically secure families depend on it. 

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