Commissioner Howard's interview on the need to raise awareness of the importance of early prenatal care

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Candace Kelley:  Earlier this year a task force in New Jersey was created in order to look at access to prenatal care and they also came up with a report and today we’re going to be talking about the report and those findings and barriers to prenatal care.  Hello and thank you for joining us.  I’m Candace Kelley and this is Comcast Newsmakers.  This hour’s newsmaker is Heather Howard.  She is the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services and today we are talking about the task force and their findings.  Thank you very much for being here today.

Commissioner Howard:  Thank you for having me.

Candace Kelley:  Absolutely, first of all, this has to do with women’s access to prenatal care, what exactly were the findings?

Commissioner Howard:  Well, what happened was a year ago a report card came out that rated the State on women’s health factors and New Jersey ranked near the bottom, especially in the area of accessing prenatal care.  We found that women were less likely to be accessing prenatal care in their first trimester when it’s so important for women to get into a doctor and learn about how to handle their pregnancy.  And, we really, we found a couple of things, the most important one was that women who lacked health insurance were much less likely to access prenatal care so the number one determinant is whether or not you have health insurance so the best thing we can do is get more women health insurance.

Candace Kelley:  Right, and that’s something employers need to look at or the Federal government needs to look at.  There are so many entities that makeup the reason as to why they are not getting this prenatal care.

Commissioner Howard:  That’s right.  It’s the State’s responsibility, the Federal responsibility and an employer’s (responsibility).  There are a lot of different people that can help women get access to healthcare and we know then that if you have access to healthcare and you start seeing a Doctor early on, you’re much more likely to have a healthy pregnancy and to give birth to a healthy baby.  And, that of course, saves our system so much money in the long run and gives every kid a real chance in having a healthy life.

Candace Kelley:  Also too, to talk to women before they even get pregnant because there are surprise pregnancies and from these findings we found that from the surprise pregnancies women were less inclined to also get healthcare.  I guess they’re surprised on so many levels they may not think about it in those ways.

Commissioner Howard:  That’s right.  The second most determinant factor was for women who were not planning their pregnancy.  They’re much less likely to go see a Doctor during their pregnancy so that means they’re less likely to be told to be getting the advice to stop smoking, to start taking vitamins, start eating healthy, all of those things they’re not doing.  So, one thing we need to do is we need to get the women even before they’re pregnant and talk to them about what we call preconception care which is taking care of yourself so that if you do become pregnant, you’re starting off healthy.

Candace Kelley:  Now I know that you being involved in this -- you know a lot about the medical field and health field, but were there any things about this report that surprised you?

Commissioner Howard:  That actually about the unintended pregnancies surprised me, that we need to start even before women are pregnant and we need to start at the family planning stage.  We need to start getting with young women and start talking to them about the importance of planning their families and keeping themselves healthy so that was surprising.  Also, the racial and ethnic disparities that African-American and Latina women are much less likely to see a physician early in their pregnancy.  And, of course that means they’re more likely to have a low birth weight baby or deliver preterm, so it’s a real issue of a healthcare disparity and we need to specifically target those populations.

Candace Kelley:  And when we do talk about those populations and give women more access to prenatal care what does that do for New Jersey as a whole besides a higher report card rating?

Commissioner Howard:  That’s right……

Candace Kelley:  But in terms of what it means on the healthcare system and the number of children that are… I guess in terms of birth defects or things they might have to endure.

Commissioner Howard:  Well, that’s right – one thing we hopefully won’t get any more F’s on our report card but more importantly it means more women will be reducing maternal mortality – women will deliver, they will remain healthy during the pregnancy, children will be born a full-term, more kids will be born at full-term so they will  be born at a healthy birth weight and they’re much less likely to suffer from birth defects or other problems and they really have a healthy start at life and we know that kids who are born at a normal weight are much more likely to succeed in school and to have better prospects for their life.  So, this really gives the kids a great start at life and will save our health care system a lot of money down the road.

Candace Kelley:  Did the report say anything about doctors specifically with the recommendation of C-sections or anything like that?  I know that’s been very popular.

Commissioner Howard:  It’s a couple things about doctors, we have real geographic disparities across the State and some parts of the State women have an easy time getting an appointment.  In some parts of the State some women are waiting 8-10 weeks to see a doctor.  That’s a real problem when your goal is to get women in early to start educating them about their health.  So, that’s one real problem.  Another issue is that we are losing OB-GYNS in the State, so we need to make sure we have enough doctors…

Candace Kelley:  to stay here in New Jersey…

Commissioner Howard:  That’s right

Candace Kelley:  Hopefully when you come back you’ll get a higher score.

Commissioner Howard:  Thanks

Candace Kelley:  That will make a lot of sense.  Thank you for being with us today. Heather Howard, Commissioner of the Department of Health and Senior Services.  I’m Candace Kelley from Comcast Newsmakers.  Thanks so much for watching.

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