Sen. Tina Smith discusses maternal health outcomes in Bemidji
By Nicole Ronchetti
U.S. Sen. Tina Smith spent time during her visit to Bemidji at Sanford Health to discuss how maternal outcomes can be improved for rural and Indigenous communities.
BEMIDJI — During a visit to Bemidji on Thursday, U.S. Sen. Tina Smith spent time at Sanford Health to discuss how maternal outcomes can be improved for rural and Indigenous communities.
During the conversation, Smith was able to hear about the Families First Rural Maternal Health Collaborative, a partnership between Sanford Health of Minnesota, Cass Lake Indian Health Services, Red Lake IHS and Beltrami County Health and Human Services that was started in 2021.
“The Families First Collaborative is a real model for what we can do to expand access to maternity care to small towns and rural places,” Smith shared, “and what we can do to start to address the deep disparities that women in rural communities face when it comes to maternal mortality, particularly for Native women.”
Since its conception, the Families First Collaborative has worked to improve access to prenatal care across five counties, with a particular emphasis on improving care for Native American women. This has involved increasing virtual care opportunities, addressing transportation barriers and supporting satellite clinics and ER partners.
“We have a very diverse population with many challenges, and if we really want to reduce the disparate outcomes that exist we need the resources to do so,” explained Dr. Johnna Nynas, an OB-GYN at Sanford Bemidji.
Rural areas frequently see higher rates of maternal mortality, in part due to the limited availability of specialized maternal and obstetrics care. Further disparities are seen among Indigenous communities, as Native American women are twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes as white women.
“We really look at the social determinants of health and the common barriers we see,” Nynas explained. “One of the biggest things we see is poverty and transportation barriers, so we’re bringing our care to where women are.”
By helping satellite clinics in the area create access to virtual appointments with maternal health specialists at Sanford Health, a patient who lives hours away from Bemidji is able to get the prenatal care they need closer to home.
“There are so many barriers for our community in relation to living in a rural, isolated area,” shared Susan Ninham, a supervisor at Red Lake’s Family Spirit Program. “I think (the collaborative) has really increased the quality of care that our patients are needing and it’s eliminated some of those barriers (such as) traveling, taking time off work and finding child care.”
The collaborative is also taking efforts to help expecting mothers who are experiencing other health complications, such as diabetes, high blood pressure or substance use.
“(Maternal health) is a complicated issue,” Smith said. “It’s not just one thing that creates barriers in access to care, which is why this collaborative approach is so interesting and exciting to me.”
Smith hopes that the Families First Collaborative can serve as a model for other areas of the country. Through the Rural Maternal and Obstetric Modernization of Services Act, which was passed last year, Smith has worked to improve funding and innovation related to maternal health.
“The idea behind the Rural MOMS Act was to continue this kind of collaboration and partnership that’s been started here in Bemidji and see it replicated in other areas of the country where there is such a deep need,” Smith explained. “I think there are many rural communities that can really learn from what you’re doing.”
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