OurTupelo

Note: This Q&A first published in Mississippi Today’s InformHer newsletter. Subscribe to our free women and girls newsletter to read stories like this monthly.

Dr. Christina Glick is a neonatologist who has had a career-long interest in human milk diet for premature infants and breastfeeding for all babies. She also runs a free-standing breastfeeding clinic in Jackson, Mississippi Lactation Services, to continue and expand her advocacy efforts for the many benefits of breastfeeding.

Mississippi Today spoke with Glick this week about the benefits of breastfeeding, the stigma around it that exists in Mississippi and how the larger culture around breastfeeding in America needs to change.

Editor’s note: This Q+A has been edited for length and clarity.

Mississippi Today: Why is breast milk important for the health of babies, and especially preterm babies?

Dr. Christina Glick: Breast milk in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) has been shown to be absolutely life saving. Fewer babies die when they’re given a breast milk diet. That should convince all of us that it’s absolutely important, right? There’s a couple of things that breast milk does that are life saving. One, it reduces the number of infections that babies have. One of the things that premature babies die from in the NICU is bloodstream infections and they are actually reduced by using a breast milk diet. There’s also necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a catastrophic intestinal infection that has a very high mortality rate. (NEC typically happens within the first 2 weeks of life in babies who are fed formula instead of breast milk. In this condition, bacteria invade the wall of the intestine.) We can really reduce the rate of NEC infections when babies are fed breast milk instead of formula. It goes almost to zero when there’s an exclusive breast milk diet, which is just phenomenal. 

Some of the more subtle things breast milk does is that it changes the bacterial microbiome of babies, and when we establish a normal, healthy microbiome from the newborn period, we think it actually changes lifelong health. That’s one of the things that we’ve lost when we use formula and we cannot replicate that using probiotics. There’s no way to do it other than using fresh breast milk. 

There’s a lot of stuff that breast milk does that is really sort of magical, and that we are only now beginning to understand. And we think that the longer and more intensive research that goes into it, we’re going to learn more about these kinds of benefits. 

MT: As you know, in Mississippi, one of every seven babies is born preterm. We also have the highest rates of preterm birth, infant mortality, child mortality, low birthweight and neonatal mortality. Despite all these issues, we also have one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the nation. Why do you think the stigma around breastfeeding still exists here, even though it offers so many benefits?

CG: I’ve had my breastfeeding clinic for about seven years now, and what I’ve noticed that has a really profound effect on women breastfeeding is the culture that they live in. So that includes how their mothers and their grandmothers fed. One of the most common things I hear is someone coming in and saying, ‘my mother says I need to use formula because I’m not making enough milk. That’s how I was fed and I’m fine.’ And so it’s those kinds of voices that really discourage women from breastfeeding. And so we need to get the breastfeeding rates up in our whole community so that the mothers and grandmothers and neighbors and sisters have all breastfed, and then they know about the breastfeeding journey so they know how to counsel the new mother who is struggling with low milk supply and a hungry baby. So that first answer isn’t give that baby a bottle of formula, it’s let’s breastfeed or a little more often, so we can increase your supply. There’s a lot of confusing information that exists just culturally about what normal feeding is. And when we live in a formula culture, that’s not good information for babies who are breastfeeding.

MT: In recent years, the discussion around working mothers’ needs around breastfeeding has become more prominent. But any gains in workplace accommodations for breastfeeding mothers has been concentrated in wealthier, whiter workplaces. I was hoping you could talk a bit about that disparity.

CG: People that work hourly wage jobs tend not to be given adequate breaks for breastfeeding. Nor are they given an adequate place to breastfeed. The hourly wage workers are often told to go pump in the bathroom. That’s like saying ‘go eat lunch in the bathroom.’ That’s gross! So, there needs to be universal, safe, clean and private places to pump for mothers who are working. And that just doesn’t happen except in the white collar environment. You know, if you’re a banker, or a lawyer or whatever, you’re going to have a private office, and you can certainly have a lot more flexibility with your hours and how long you’re going to break to go pump. But if you’re working where there’s no place to pump, it’s going to be very, very hard to get adequate pump sessions and to continue to be able to provide milk for your baby.

MT: What do you think about how breastfeeding is handled in America and what needs to change there?

CG: You’ll find that in countries where breastfeeding is standard, even the taxicab drivers will turn around and say to the mamas when there’s a crying baby, ‘well feed your baby.’ We hide breastfeeding here. We don’t breastfeed very well in public. And until we begin to have that as a perfectly normal part of our standard behavior, it’s going to interfere with our breastfeeding rates. I want to have mamas and grandmas that have the expertise in breastfeeding, so new moms don’t need me as much. I mean, there’s gonna be a need for me and my clinic no matter what, but I want there to be that community support where they don’t have to come to me for every little problem in their breastfeeding because they’re getting that support at home.

The post Q&A with neonatologist Dr. Christina Glick on the benefits of breastfeeding appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Note: This analysis first published in Mississippi Today’s weekly legislative newsletter. Subscribe to our free newsletter for exclusive early access to weekly analyses.

Speaker of the House Philip Gunn is still privately telling donors and political advisers he’s considering a 2023 run for governor against Republican incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves.

That’s why Jackson politicos have been closely watching Gunn during this 2022 legislative session. They’ve wondered whether the third-term speaker would use the final legislative session before the election year to show strong leadership — the kind of leadership that inspires and brings political factions together, that brings about lasting and positive change for the state. 

After all, Gunn and others say that Reeves has long lacked such qualities dating back to his two terms as lieutenant governor. If Gunn wanted to make a name for himself and launch a viable statewide campaign against an incumbent, he needed to set himself apart from Reeves during the pivotal first three months of this year.

But so far this session, Gunn has done nothing of the sort. He looks more like a spitting image of Reeves in his Capitol days: a stubborn bully, quick to kill bills that he and his allies didn’t write because he can’t get his way.

And in the shock of the 2022 legislative session thus far, Gunn has begun aligning himself with Reeves to intimidate Republican senators into supporting a bill they don’t like.

Gunn’s dug-in heels ahead of Wednesday’s major deadline signals that he will not let any spending bills — including the historic $1.8 billion in American Rescue Act Plan funds — pass unless Senate Republicans commit to supporting his proposal to completely eliminate the state’s personal income tax.

“I am of the belief that if we can’t get this tax elimination done in the next two weeks, the governor should call a special session to eliminate the income tax before we spend a dime of other money … (American Rescue Plan Act) money, capital expense fund money, anything,” Gunn said on Feb. 28. “The governor has been very supportive of elimination and this issue. He shares our view that we don’t spend money until such time as we give the taxpayers some tax relief… We hope the governor would call a special session on income tax elimination.”

READ MORE: 5 things to know about the Great Mississippi Tax Cut Battle of 2022

Reeves, whose political aides have nervously stalked Gunn’s every move for months, is relishing the speaker’s public invitation to help get income tax elimination across the finish line.

“I’m impressed by the improvements (the House has) made, and I’m impressed they have a true plan to eliminate the state income tax,” Reeves said in a press conference last week. “I’m very reluctant to call special sessions … but elimination of the income tax is an issue that certainly could rise to that level. I am not taking that option off the table.”

Gunn’s best idea to set himself apart during the 2022 legislative session was to pass a complete elimination of the income tax — a once-in-a-lifetime achievement that would certainly play well among Republican voters on the statewide campaign trail in 2023.

But after struggling to earn buy-in from Republican senators, Gunn has become so desperate that he’s willing to ask Reeves for help and hand his arch-rival the political gift of a lifetime: the chance to take full credit for Gunn’s best idea.

READ MORE: House offers ‘compromise’ teacher pay raise, but Senate says it wasn’t in on the compromising

It’s enticing to consider the 2023 ramifications of this moment, but the speaker’s holding hostage the ARPA funds will dominate news cycles for at least the next three weeks. Lawmakers have until 2024 to spend the $1.8 billion pot, but that deadline means little to the many Mississippians who need the money now.

Cities and counties have been holding off spending their own small pots of ARPA money on long overdue road, water and sewerage repairs because there have been indications from lawmakers that a state match could be coming their way. The Senate passed a $750 million state match program for local governments to spend on these projects.

Hospital leaders and nurses are desperate for relief as they come off a fourth COVID-19 wave. The Senate passed a $12 million plan to address that.

Several state agencies have major needs and lost revenue during the pandemic. The Senate passed a $211.4 million plan that would provide infrastructure upgrades to state agencies, including $26.5 million for work on various state buildings. The Senate also passed a $110 million plan for water and sewerage projects at universities and community colleges, and a $250 million plan to reimbursement for lost state revenue from the pandemic.

The state’s teacher shortage crisis will drastically worsen after this school year in large part because of growing mental health crises among faculty and students. The Senate passed a $105 million plan to address several mental health issues across the state. 

Many Mississippians can’t work because they can’t find or afford child care, and others face evictions and foreclosures because of the economic effects of the pandemic. Many states have used ARPA funds to help child care centers expand and help protect people who may lose their homes.

All of these Senate spending proposals are among the many in jeopardy between now and the end of the session as Gunn struggles to garner support for his tax cut plan that some — including Republican senators — say could drastically harm the state’s economy in the long run.

Meanwhile, as Gunn continues to create drama at the Capitol, at least one person in downtown Jackson is already reaping political benefits of the moment — and it might just get him reelected as governor.

READ MORE: Senate reluctantly takes House bill to ensure passage of teacher pay raise

The post Speaker Philip Gunn is holding $1.8 billion hostage — and could give Gov. Tate Reeves a big win appeared first on Mississippi Today.

State Sen. Angela Hill, a Republican from Picayune, joins Mississippi Today’s Adam Ganucheau and Geoff Pender to discuss her bill, a proposal seeking to create “Buddy’s Law,” to provide mental health resources to minors who abuse animals. She also discussed tension between GOP leaders during the 2022 legislative session.

Listen to more episodes of The Other Side here.

The post Podcast: Sen. Angela Hill discusses ‘Buddy’s Law,’ tension at Capitol appeared first on Mississippi Today.

In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large sits down with Ki Harris, the Executive Director for the Freedom Project Network. Ki knew he wanted to give back the moment his diploma hit his hand. That meant he would teach and the Atlanta-native ended up teaching in the Mississippi Delta thanks to Teach For America. Coach Ki, as he was known to his football players and English students quickly learned his students were hungry to learn.

That love of giving back is what led him to his next job: Director of College Access and Experimental Learning at the Sunflower County Freedom Project. Today, Ki is the Executive of the Freedom Project Network which helps support and tie the Sunflower County, Meridian and Rosedale Freedom projects together. Ki shares his life and passion for uplifting lives and proves he is not talking out of a book; he is talking out of his heart.

The post Mississippi Stories: Ki Harris appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Just because Mississippi is among the rare group of states that have elections every year does not mean that the state always has compelling election seasons.

Unless unforeseen events occur, this year’s election cycle falls under the not-so-compelling category. All four general elections for the state’s U.S. House seats are expected to be snoozers. In all four elections, both major political parties are running candidates, and the candidates from the party out of power in each district deserve respect and our attention as they try to accomplish near herculean tasks. But those elections would be major upsets should those candidates prevail.

The respected Cook Political Report compiles what they call “partisan voting index” for each congressional district in the country. The index shows how strongly a district or state leans toward a party based on a formula developed by the Cook political scientists using historical data.

The partisan voting index for all four Mississippi House districts are in the double digits. Both the 2nd Congressional District, where Democrat Bennie Thompson is the incumbent, and the 3rd, where Republican Michael Guest is the incumbent, have partisan voting indices of 13 in favor of the incumbent. The 1st District, where Republican Trent Kelly is the incumbent, has a pro-Republican tilt of plus-18, while the 4tb District seat occupied by Republican Steven Palazzo is at plus-22.

In other words there is no naturally “competitive” seat in Mississippi, where under normal circumstances the candidate of each party would have a reasonable chance of winning.

There are districts with higher partisan voting indices than those found in Mississippi. But another study by the FiveThirtyEight blog, which also uses historical data, suggests that Mississippi has the most inelastic electorate in the country. In other words, the people who vote Republican in Mississippi generally always vote Republican, and the people who vote Democratic in Mississippi seldom, if ever, cross over.

The partisan voting index of the entire state, according to Cook, is Republican plus-10, which incidentally is lower than at least four states with governors from the other party. The partisan voting index of both Maryland and Massachusetts is more pro-Democrat than Mississippi is Republican, yet they have Republican governors. The reverse is true for Louisiana and Kentucky that have what appear to be popular Democratic governors.

On the other hand, Mississippi has not elected a Democratic governor since 1999 — former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove. But remember that elasticity index. People in Mississippi are more set on how they vote than people in other states.

The NAACP and others are seeking through the federal courts this year to have Mississippi congressional districts redrawn in a way that would make at least one congressional district — likely the 3rd — more competitive. The state Legislature redrew the districts this year to adhere to population shifts found by the 2020 U.S. Census. That redistricting is being challenged by the NAACP on the grounds it diminishes the impact of Black voters by placing the bulk of them in the 2nd District and spreading the remainder out in a manner to minimize their impact in the other three districts. If a greater percentage of African American voters, who are the Democrats’ primary voting bloc in the state, were placed in the 3rd, then that district could perhaps become more competitive.

Most people believe the lawsuit is a long shot in the conservative U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Mississippi.

The early 2000s, when Democrats still controlled both chambers of the Mississippi Legislature, was the last time an effort was made to develop more competitive congressional districts. That year, based on U.S. Census data, the state lost a congressional district. The goal of Democrats in the state Legislature was to draw a new map where they would be the solid-blue 2nd District but make the 3rd District more competitive.

They attempted to do this by drawing the 1st District to encompass much of north Mississippi, including the Tupelo and DeSoto County areas, and stretching it all the way down into suburban Jackson. The late House Speaker Tim Ford, a Democrat from Baldwyn who supported the plan, dubbed it the “tornado district” — not a moniker that engendered support. But the intent of the plan was to place more African American voters in the 3rd District in an attempt to make it competitive.

But Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck, the presiding officer of the Senate who was then a Democrat but later switched to the Republican Party, blocked the “tornado” plan. Since then, with a couple of exceptions, Mississippi has not had competitive general elections for the congressional seats.

Perhaps 2022 will be an exception for one or more candidates in Mississippi, but history and math are not on their side.

The post Why Mississippi is not known for very competitive elections appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gas prices in the United States have significantly increased recently, with places such as California and Illinois experiencing some of the highest prices of $5 per gallon and upward, according to the American Automobile Association.

CBS reported on a combination of factors that have led to this situation:

• Over two years into the pandemic, economic recovery and increased vaccination rates mean a post-pandemic demand for gas as people are driving more for work, trips, etc.

• In the early days of the pandemic, oil production was cut due to low demand, and now production as a whole has been slow to catch up.

• The United States does not import much gas from Russia — less than 10%. But, U.S. sanctions do add to the issues with the overall global market.

Mississippi ranks lower with an average price of $4 per gallon. However, lower prices can still be financially impactful given states' varying economies.

As CNN puts it, Mississippians need to work two hours and 34 minutes to fill up a 15-gallon tank at an average price of $4.01, but Californians only have to work two hours and 18 minutes with a significantly higher average price per gallon of $5.72.

The post Data Dive: Gas prices in Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

I know, I know — gub’ment is bad, right? Well, gub’ment makes up the people and services that we depend on daily. It is our neighbors, friends and family. So removing 1/3 of the revenue out of the state budget doesn’t seem like such a hot idea. I’ve never believed that government is the answer. But I definitely believe starving the one we have isn’t either.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Meeting the Beast appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Family members of Emmett Till are calling on Mississippi officials to arrest the woman they say is the last living accomplice in Till’s lynching.

The Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, founded by Till’s family members, announced Friday at a press conference at the Mississippi State Capitol that they were delivering a petition with over 300,000 signatures to Mississippi officials, calling for Carolyn Bryant Donham to be charged.

Donham was the wife of Roy Bryant, one of Till’s two murderers. She and her husband owned a store together in Money, Miss. that Till and his cousins visited in August 1955, where she later testified that he allegedly grabbed her arm, put his hands on her waist, and made sexually suggestive comments.

In 2018, the investigation into Till’s death was reopened after a book by Timothy Tyson published that included a confession from Donham that her allegations at the time were false. In the book, Donham recanted that Till made advances on her, telling the author “that part is not true.” Donham later disputed this claim that she recanted her story, according to the Mississippi Center For Investigative Reporting. In December 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice closed the case without filing any additional charges because authorities found “insufficient evidence to prove that she ever told the professor that any part of her testimony was untrue.”

Family members said they met with the Department of Justice in Oxford earlier this week, but left disappointed as they feel other information still needs to be investigated. 

“We want justice,” said Jaribu Hill, a civil rights attorney representing the family.  “We want the original warrant that should have been served on her in 1955. We want that warrant to surface, and we want it served…We want the evidence that shows her culpability brought before a grand jury, and we want the state of Mississippi to take accountability, to be responsible, for all of the Emmett Tills.” 

Posters next to the podium showed paintings of Till with career goals he was not able to fulfill, including peacekeeping, cooking, comedy, and playing baseball. 

“It is frustrating that I have to keep screaming and hollering about the importance of getting closure, not only for the family of Emmett Till but for the whole nation,” said Keith Beauchamp, whose 2005 documentary The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till helped reopen the case. 

Shelton Chappell, whose mother was shot during the 1964 Jacksonville race riots, played the freedom song “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around” on his saxophone while other speakers sang along.

Deborah Watts, co-founder of the foundation, said that it was “invigorating” to see so many petition signatures, which reminds her that “we are not walking this road alone.” 

“We made a promise to Mamie (Till) that we would persist, and that’s why we’re here today,” Watts said. 

A “Justice for Emmett Till” rally will be held in Smith Park in Jackson on Saturday, March 12 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The post Emmett Till’s family wants Carolyn Bryant Donham brought to justice appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A few weeks after Courtney Darby gave birth to her daughter Deysha, she got a letter in the mail notifying her that she would soon lose her health insurance through Medicaid. 

Deysha, born in December 2008, was Darby’s first baby, and she was still wondering when she would feel normal again. She wanted to ask her doctor about the back pain that lingered and the nagging worry that she was doing everything wrong. 

But her job at a grocery store didn’t provide health insurance, so without Medicaid coverage, she was left to do her own research and hope for the best. 

“It was too soon,” said Darby.

Earlier this year, about two months after her son R’Jay was born, Darby got a very different letter. It told her that Medicaid would continue to cover her healthcare, thanks to federal rules that extend health insurance coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

As a result, Darby can make an appointment to see a doctor whenever she needs. She has been able to get medication and therapy to treat postpartum depression and anxiety.

But on Wednesday, leaders in the state House killed a bill that would have ensured new moms like Darby could get Medicaid coverage for a year postpartum even after the federal public health emergency ends. When that happens — likely later this year — many of the 60% of pregnant women in Mississippi who are covered by Medicaid will be forced to go without healthcare starting two months after giving birth.

Even some states that have not expanded Medicaid eligibility, like Georgia and Tennessee, have passed measures to let new moms keep their coverage for at least six months. Alabama is set to extend coverage to a year postpartum. 

Just over 39,000 Mississippians are currently covered by Medicaid because they are pregnant or postpartum, according to the state Division of Medicaid. When the emergency declaration ends, communications officer Matt Westerfield said, states will begin reviewing current beneficiaries on a rolling basis. 

People like Darby, who gave birth more than 60 days ago, will lose coverage unless they qualify in another category, such as disability. And people who give birth after the declaration ends are likely to get no more than 60 days of coverage postpartum.

After Senate Bill 2033 failed, Darby was stunned.

“I don’t understand it,” she said. “I mean, it’s just mind blowing that you know — it’s like, have some compassion. Have some heart. At least try to show that you care.”

House Speaker Phillip Gunn cited his opposition to Medicaid expansion, though the bill would not have expanded eligibility for Medicaid. The Associated Press asked Gunn whether extending postpartum coverage saved lives. 

“That has not been a part of the discussions that I’ve heard,” Gunn said.

To Darby, the consequences of the extension are intimately familiar, and the stakes are high: her life, and the lives of her children. 

“That’s kind of a savior to me,” she said of Medicaid coverage. Now, she waits and wonders when it will run out. 

During her pregnancy with R’Jay, Darby regularly drove 20 miles from her home in Heidelberg to the OB-GYN clinic at the Family Health Center in Laurel. Once a month, then twice, and then every week, she reported to a squat brick building near downtown. The waiting room was always crowded with pregnant women.

Family Health Center is a federally qualified health clinic (FQHC), which means it relies on federal grants and donations as well as reimbursement from Medicaid and Medicare to operate. 

Dr. Rashad Ali, who has led the center since 2006, is proud to describe its mission: To provide quality healthcare for the underserved and the uninsured. Ali, an OB-GYN, delivers 200 to 250 babies a year, and one of those in 2021 was R’Jay. He estimates about 70% of the pregnant women he sees are enrolled in Medicaid. 

The five counties served by Family Health Center are prime examples of the importance of FQHCs. Clarke, Jasper, Jones, Smith and Wayne Counties are rural and poor. About one in five adults lacks health insurance, a little higher than the state average. 

Shelly Roark, a women’s health nurse practitioner at Family Health Center, said Medicaid coverage during pregnancy and after gives her patients a chance to get care for underlying health issues like chronic hypertension, kidney disease and diabetes, which can be exacerbated by pregnancy. 

The state’s 2019 maternal mortality report, which reviewed all 136 maternal deaths during pregnancy and up to a year postpartum from 2013 to 2016, found that heart conditions and hypertensive disorders were the most common causes of death. The report also found that Black women are three times likelier than white women to die of a pregnancy-related cause.

In the weeks after a baby is born, new parents are focused on learning how to be responsible for another person’s every need.

“You’re not worried about yourself,” Roark said. “After that two months, you can start focusing more on yourself. That’s when we really need to provide the care.”

With extended Medicaid coverage during the pandemic, Roark can make sure that happens, referring new moms to specialists and connecting them with mental health practitioners. 

Roark joined Family Health Center in March 2019. During her first year at the clinic, she saw what happened when women were dropped from Medicaid 60 days after pregnancy. 

“Typically, they just don’t show up” to scheduled follow-up appointments, she said.

Because Mississippi hasn’t expanded Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, many working parents who could be covered in other states aren’t covered here. In Louisiana, for example, a single parent with four kids qualifies as long as their income is below about $43,000. In Mississippi, that same parent only qualifies if their income is less than $8,100 annually. (And healthy single adults in Mississippi can’t get Medicaid at all.)

During pregnancy, the income rules are much looser: A woman with four kids qualifies as long as her monthly income is below about $5,400. That means many women with insurance through work get additional coverage through Medicaid that makes it possible for them to get better care.

Family Health Center has a sliding fee scale to try to keep services affordable, but any amount can be too much for families struggling to pay for diapers, food, and older kids’ needs. 

Mississippi doesn’t have a paid family leave policy, so for many women, giving birth and taking a few weeks to recover and bond with their baby means losing income completely. By the time they are able to return to work, the bills are piling up.

“I’ve had to be that patient, where it’s like– ‘I can’t come, because I don’t have the money,’” Darby said. 

She wants to keep her kids active in sports and school events, which also costs money. Sometimes, she tries to use Google to find “home remedies” to save herself a doctor’s bill. 

“It’s trying to distinguish between, do you want to try to keep your child on track, help them succeed? Or (pay for) this one-time visit?”

When Darby brought R’Jay home from the hospital, she was overwhelmed. Without the nurses’ help, she felt like she had forgotten how to breastfeed. She worried about catching COVID-19 and bringing it back to her baby. She barely slept, concerned R’Jay would die of SIDS if she didn’t watch over him constantly. 

Was he sleeping too much? Not enough? Was he getting enough milk? Was she doing this all wrong?

“It just got to the point where that deep depression slipped in,” she said. “I really didn’t want to get up and do nothing, but I had to. It was an everyday fight and battle for me: ‘You’ve got to get up, you’ve got to get up. Your children need you. R’Jay can’t do nothing for himself.’”

The feeling wasn’t like a light switch she could turn on and off. It came and went, no matter how much she tried to stop it. It was unlike anything she experienced after her older children were born, and it was hard to explain.

Her doctor prescribed medication and referred her to a therapist, who diagnosed her with severe anxiety and depression. They talk about trying to tackle one thing at a time.

Postpartum depression and other mental health issues are not a small part of Mississippi’s maternal health crisis. The maternal mortality review found that 11% of all pregnancy-related deaths in the state were caused by suicide or drug overdose. And 37% of all pregnancy-related deaths occurred more than six weeks after birth. Several studies have shown rates of postpartum anxiety and depression are rising during the COVID-19 pandemic, as new moms are more isolated and worry about their family’s safety. 

Darby knew she needed help, and she’s grateful she can get it.

“I don’t want to keep it covered to the point that I’m so down and out that I can’t dig myself out of that hole,” she said. “I want to be the best parent that I can be for not only R’Jay, but also my other kids as well.”

Exactly how long Darby’s coverage will last is now unclear. She is taking time off from her job as a teacher to focus on parenting and her mental health, and she thought her Medicaid coverage would provide a measure of stability and consistent access to care. 

The current declaration is set to expire in mid-April, but the federal government told states it would give them 60 days’ notice before any expiration. Since that notice hasn’t arrived, the declaration should be extended at least one more time, which could last until mid-July. 

Depending on when the emergency declaration ends and how long Mississippi takes to reevaluate her eligibility, Darby could lose coverage in several months.

Her doctors at Family Health Center are worried, too. Ali is a former president of the Community Health Center Association of Mississippi, which backed efforts to extend postpartum coverage. 

“It’s not at all uncommon for a woman to have health issues weeks or months after they’ve delivered,” he said. “And if they don’t have money to get treated, what are they supposed to do? On occasion, we find people who had problems in the pregnancy, but after the pregnancy is over, two months later that problem hasn’t gone away, but now they don’t have money or insurance.”

R’Jay, now nearly three months old, cries less than Darby’s other kids did when they were babies. He already likes to talk. Every night from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m., he wakes up, as regular as clocking in to work, she jokes. 

After dozing off in his baby carrier while Darby talked, he woke up with the hiccups. Darby held him against her chest.

“Hiccup means baby grows, they gonna get taller,” she said, looking at her son. She smiled. “I just always say that.”

The post Medicaid coverage helped this Mississippi mom fight postpartum depression. Now, she’s set to lose it. appeared first on Mississippi Today.