Kansas has slightly improved in a national scorecard of maternal and infant health but there are still places to to better, especially when it comes to the health of women and babies of color.
Every year, the March of Dimes, a group focused on improving maternal and infant health, releases a report card for each state.
Things like preterm births, infant mortality, and adequate prenatal care improved in Kansas.
A spokesperson for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said they’re encouraged by the improved score but still committed to improving the health of Kansas women and babies.
“While there is still work ahead, Kansas has made meaningful progress through evidence-based initiatives, strengthened clinical partnerships and improved support for families during pregnancy and postpartum,” a spokesperson told the Kansas News Service in a statement.
The agency cited initiatives like perinatal mental health and substance use services, home-visiting programs and prenatal and postnatal education through the Becoming a Mom curriculum to help improve the health of women and babies.
“In addition, Kansas is engaged in several forward-looking initiatives to address rural access, mental health and substance use enhancements, telehealth expansion, remote blood pressure monitoring, birth equity, and data infrastructure improvements,” the statement said.
Kansas grades
Kansas scored a C- for preterm births, which is higher than the national grade, a D+. The preterm birth rate in Kansas was 10.3%, lower than 2024’s rate of 10.5%.
Kara Hamilton-McGraw is director of impact and implementation at March of Dimes. The report focuses heavily on preterm birth rates, which are babies born before 37 weeks, because a preterm birth can negatively impact the baby’s health in a lot of ways.
“Linked to higher risks of infant illnesses like RSV, long-term health problems with sight or a congenital heart defect and actually even early mortality,” she said.
Kansas also improved in other areas, like infant mortality, the rate of cesarean sections for low-risk births and infant mortality.
McGraw said the amount of Kansans receiving adequate and early prenatal care also improved.
“Getting to a physician as soon as you know you're pregnant,” she said, “allows prevention interventions that could really save and improve the health of mom and baby in the long run.”
“That is something worth celebrating for sure,” McGraw said.
But it wasn’t all good news.
Severe maternal morbidity, which is when a person experiences severe complications during pregnancy, birth or postpartum that cause lasting health issues, worsened in Kansas. As did maternal mortality.
Racial disparities
McGraw said Kansas, like the rest of the nation, has profound racial disparities when it comes to maternal and infant health.
The preterm birth rate, for example, is much higher than the state and national average for Kansans of Pacific Islander descent and Black Kansans (15.4% and 14.9%).
“That’s indicative of a multitude of reasons,” McGraw said. “They can all have an impact on birth outcomes and actually mom's health after and before pregnancy.”
Pacific Islander Kansans are almost 5x more likely than other Kansans to experience inadequate prenatal care. And babies born to Black Kansans are almost 2x more likely than others to die.
McGraw said Kansas could make some improvements to address these issues and improve the overall score.
She said the state extended access to Medicaid to one year postpartum, which is important. But more could be done. McGraw said the state should expand Medicaid, too.
“In this day and age when inflation is so high and things that we normally access like groceries take a bigger chunk of the budget, it's important to cover as many families as possible,” she said. McGraw said Kansas should also require physicians to screen Medicaid recipients for postpartum depression and the physicians should be reimbursed for the screening. And she said the state should mandate employers provide paid family leave.
“That has shown to have very positive outcomes in terms of mom's health,” McGraw said.
Bek Shackelford-Nwanganga reports on health care disparities and access for the Kansas News Service. You can email her at r.shackelford@kcur.org.
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