DES MOINES, Iowa — Every year about 21,000 babies are stillborn in the U.S., according to the C.D.C. That means every year about 42,000 parents are left grieving.
Janet Petersen is one of them.
She tells Local 5 that the Maternal and Child Health Stillbirth Prevention Act Biden recently signed into law gives her hope.
The act clarifies that Title 5 money can be put towards stillbirth education and prevention. Advocate Janet Peterson hopes that it saves other families from the pain she’s experienced.
“She’d be turning 21 years old on July 22 and it’s a pain that never leaves you," she said.
The time leading up to the day Janet Petersen’s world turned upside down looked like any other pregnancy.
“I didn’t think that in my ninth month of pregnancy that it was even a possibility to lose a baby to stillbirth. Especially after a healthy pregnancy," she said.
But one night, Petersen was woken up by a sharp pain in her leg. To be safe, she stopped by the doctor’s the next day. Her husband offered to come along but she declined, thinking nothing big would come of it.
“When I got to the exam room, they couldn’t find her heartbeat," Peterson remembered.
She was shocked.
“It’s really hard to put into words just how painful it is to lose a full-term baby girl that you hold in your arms and she looks perfectly healthy and something has gone horribly wrong," Petersen said.
In her grief, Petersen found four other Des Moines mothers who lost their children to stillbirth or shortly after birth.
“What we discovered was stillbirth happens in our country way more than anyone would want to believe," she said. That support group ended up turning into the organization now known as Healthy Birth Day.
“We really didn’t want other families in our club of heartache," Petersen said.
Healthy Birth Day has since taken on multiple initiatives, including getting this legislation passed.
“For far too long, states have not done stillbirth prevention education and the results and consequences of ignoring this maternal health issue are deadly," Petersen said.
She hopes this money will get more states to invest in things like fetal monitoring, which involves tracking babies' movement in the third trimester of pregnancy. Petersen says noticing changes in movement can be a lifesaving sign that a mother should go to the doctor.
It's what their Count the Kicks program focuses on. Petersen says she's gotten multiple calls from parents telling her that, without the program, they would have experienced stillbirth. Petersen clarifies that it isn't new to use Title 5 funds for stillbirth prevention and education. However, most states don't. She hopes that this legislation clarifies that you can use Title 5 funds for this. She also hopes it encourages officials to use funds for that purpose.
"It sends a message too that this is not a maternal health issue that should be ignored," Petersen said.