Canty Announces Illinois Birth Equity Blueprint to Promote Comprehensive and Equitable Maternal Health Options

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. — State Rep. Mary Beth Canty, D-Arlington Heights, announced the recent release of the Illinois Birth Equity Blueprint—a result of the Illinois Birth Equity Initiative she helped pass last year—which creates a long-term roadmap for improving birth outcomes for all Illinois mothers.

“One of the surest ways to help working families secure a more economically stable future is to guarantee mothers the comprehensive high-quality maternal healthcare they deserve,” Canty said. “When this care is highly expensive or even prohibitively expensive, families from underserved communities are forced to either go without care they need or take on debt that makes raising a happy and healthy child much more difficult.”

Last year, Canty helped lead the passage of the Illinois Birth Equity Initiative, which mandated many changes to and expansions of maternal healthcare in Illinois. Those changes included ensuring competitive Medicaid reimbursement for doulas, lactation consultants, home visitors and other community-based care providers who assist new mothers before, after and during birth. This blueprint builds on those improvements and targets systemic inequities in maternal healthcare.

Recent statewide investments in this area include $12 million in child tax credits, $5 million to provide more home visits for working-families, and $4.5 million in birth equity grants that have funded the training of 186 doulas and 79 lactation consultants.

“It’s time that we cut costs for maternal care, expand access to care in areas with limited options and create a framework for identifying risks and unique needs early,” Canty said. “The Illinois Birth Equity Blueprint will do all that while also developing monitoring systems to ensure benchmarks for improvement are being met.”