The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (NDHHS) has released its report on Nebraska Severe Maternal Morbidity (SMM) based on SMM data from 2017 to 2021. Cases of SMM, defined as “unexpected outcomes of labor and delivery that result in significant short- or long-term consequences to a woman’s health,” are much more common than maternal death in Nebraska. Studying cases of SMM, in addition to deaths, expands the available data and allows the state review team to conduct a more complete analysis and make recommendations for prevention for both maternal morbidity and mortality.
Passage of LB75
Access to information on SMM events in Nebraska is a result of passage of LB75 (amended into LB227), last year. Introduced by State Senator Tony Vargas, LB75 authorized the state review team to collect and analyze data related to SMM to help develop more informed prevention recommendations.
Disparities in SMM rates
In 2020 in Nebraska, the total number of births with at least one SMM event was 657, or 58.5 events per 10,000 hospital deliveries compared to the national rate of SMM rate of 88.3 per 10,000 deliveries that year. The report findings show that hemorrhage complications, followed by hysterectomy, acute renal failure and adult respiratory distress syndrome occur most frequently in Nebraska. There also are disparities in SMM rates in the state. Women ages 35 and older, women with Medicaid as their source of payment and non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic women had higher rates of SMM. While non-Hispanic Black women represented 7.6% of deliveries during the reporting period, 12.5% of the SMM occurred among this population. Hispanic women represented 16.7% of deliveries and experienced 22.1% of the SMM events. There were no significant differences in cases in SMM between rural and more populated areas in Nebraska.
21 SMM indicators
The federal Centers for Disease Control provides 21 indicators to identify SMM. Because of relatively small numbers in Nebraska, NDHHS grouped the indicators into seven complication groups. Studying SMM by type of complication rather than a specific cause presents a broader picture of the situation and can assist in prioritizing areas for intervention to prevent future SMM events, NDHHS said in the report. The complication groups were: cardiac, hemorrhage, renal, respiratory, sepsis, other obstetric (e.g., eclampsia, anesthesia or other complications) and other medical complications, (e.g., cerebrovascular disorders or sickle cell disease).
Read the state 2024 Severe Maternal Morbidity 2017-2021 report
Learn more about the Maternal Mortality Review Committee
Read blog posts on LB75:
Nyomi Thompson, I Be Black Girl: LB75 data collection needed to address maternal health disparities in Nebraska
Chad Abresch, CityMatCH: LB75 will yield data to help reduce health crises during childbirth
