![\"Sen.](\"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/SenDungan_inline-200x300.jpg\")
LB773, introduced by Lincoln Sen. George Dungan, would remove the sunset date and extend program services to eligible mothers for up to 60 days postpartum. The measure also would extend reporting requirements to 2034.<\/p>\n
Prenatal services under the program include nutritional counseling, psychosocial counseling and support, general client education, health promotion and targeted case management. Under the bill, qualifying services would expand to include a minimum of two breastfeeding support sessions.<\/p>\n
Dungan said the program is intended to reduce adverse health outcomes by addressing lifestyle, behavioral and nonmedical aspects of a mother\u2019s life. In the first six months of the program, he said, 68 at-risk mothers were provided prenatal services.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo let this program sunset would be a great detriment to moms across the entire state,\u201d Dungan said. \u201cA healthy mom equates to a healthy baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert Wergin of the Nebraska Medical Association supported the measure, emphasizing the importance of extending services to include postpartum mothers. The most serious preventable complications \u2014 such as hypertension, diabetes, infection and depression \u2014 often emerge postpartum, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cExtending case management through 60 days postpartum reflects the medical reality that pregnancy related care does not end at delivery,\u201d Wergin said.<\/p>\n
Madeleine Walker of the Nebraska Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence also testified in support of LB773. Domestic violence survivors are nearly three times more likely not to receive prenatal care and two times more likely to delay care than women not experiencing domestic violence, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccess to health care is a protective factor against domestic violence victimization,\u201d Walker said. \u201cThe Prenatal Plus Program meets the needs of pregnant survivors of domestic violence by connecting them with a variety of services that support their health and safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sydnie Carraher of the Nebraska Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative also supported the measure. She noted that medical risk factors and social drivers of health, such as financial barriers, substance use disorders and housing and food insecurity, can further complicate pregnancy outcomes.<\/p>\n
\u201cMothers on Medicaid face higher rates of preterm birth, low birth weight [and] severe maternal morbidity and mortality,\u201d Carraher said. \u201cImproving birth outcomes in Nebraska requires upstream solutions \u2026 that address risk factors during pregnancy before they lead to an adverse outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
No one testified in opposition to LB773 and the committee took no immediate action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Health and Human Services Committee heard testimony Feb. 5 on a bill that seeks to expand coverage under the state\u2019s Prenatal Plus Program and eliminate the program\u2019s scheduled sunset date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[278],"class_list":["post-39860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-and-human-services","tag-sen-george-dungan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/UpdateBlogPhoto-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39860"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39870,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39860\/revisions\/39870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}