Eleven maternity wards have closed in New Hampshire since 2000, and the leading cause of maternal mortality in the state is behavioral health, including substance abuse.
In an attempt to address these issues — which have been reported by the Bulletin and the New Hampshire Bureau of Family Health and Nutrition — and others related to motherhood, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced Senate Bill 246, which they have dubbed the “Momnibus 2.0” bill.
If enacted, the bill would require Medicaid to cover maternal depression screenings for new mothers at their well-child visits. It would also require health insurance policies to cover mothers’ prenatal and postnatal depression screenings, as well as depression screenings for the mother at the child’s 1-month, 2-month, 4-month, and 6-month well-child visits and home visits. This also extends to people who lost their pregnancy due to a stillbirth, miscarriage, or medical termination, as well as adoptive or foster parents within 12 months of assuming care of a child.
This comes as doctors and the general public become increasingly aware of how common prenatal and postpartum depression is.
The bill would also forbid employers from denying employees time off to attend fertility treatments, childbirth, pregnancy checkups, and postpartum care. And those employees can’t be fired for attending these appointments under the bill.
The bill also seeks to establish a perinatal psychiatric provider consult line. It would authorize the state to spend $275,000 on that consult line and allocate $75,000 of state funds for rural EMS providers to spend on maternal health-related training. It also would instruct the state Insurance Department to examine what barriers are preventing the sustainability of maternity wards in New Hampshire and report their findings to the Legislature and governor’s office by November 2026.
“Making sure moms and babies have the support they need is something everyone can get behind,” Sen. Denise Ricciardi, the bill’s prime sponsor and a Bedford Republican, said at a rally in support of the bill in Concord on Wednesday morning. “Supporting our moms and families is a shared value across the state and across party lines.”
The legislators behind the bill have cast it as a successor to the so-called “Momnibus 1.0,” a piece of legislation passed in 2023 as part of the budget. That legislation extended the time Medicaid will cover postpartum care from 60 days to a full year; required Medicaid to cover lactation services, donor breast milk, and doulas; allocated funding to family resource centers; and expanded mental health services for children.
“We are already seeing positive effects of this legislation with many more moms able to get the postpartum care that they need,” Ricciardi said. “But the work is not done. Moms need support.”
Heather Martin, who spoke at the rally Wednesday, works as a maternal mental health advocate at Dartmouth Health. Martin’s only sister died of a maternal suicide three weeks after the birth of her first child.
“No family should have to endure that pain, and no mother should have to suffer in silence.” she said. “Right now, too many moms don’t know where to turn for help.”
Martin said having these depression screenings at the child’s appointments is crucial.
“By meeting moms where they already are, we can catch maternal mental health struggles early and connect them with help they need before a crisis,” she said. “Moms in our state need help.”
At a hearing later on Wednesday, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee heard powerful testimony from a number of proponents of the bill, including Jessica Crowley, of Hampton, who spoke about the mental health challenges she faced during her challenging pregnancy. She explained that her first ultrasound visit came with the news that her baby may not be able to survive outside the womb.
“That day, and in the 10 days waiting for the test results, did any mental health professional check in with me to see how I was doing,” she asked rhetorically. “No one did.”
Her baby survived but still required surgery and time in a neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU.
“When my baby was born, I spent the next five weeks by her bedside in the NICU alone,” she said. “During that time, did one mental health professional check in with me to see how that lonely scared mom was doing. Not one for five long weeks.”
She said when nurses — which she noted had another pressing job to do — asked her how she was doing, she said she was fine. “But I was not fine. How could I have been fine? I was watching my infant struggling to survive without being able to hold her.”
“My journey to motherhood was vastly different than I imagined it would be,” she continued. “When I was a little girl I dreamed of being a mother to two, but the reality is that I felt abandoned and betrayed by the same society that told me my greatest value as a woman was becoming a mom. This bill would’ve helped me when I was that lonely, scared new mom and I know it will help New Hampshire families.”
The American College of OBGYNs and the New Hampshire Medical Society have endorsed the bill.
“When New Hampshire moms thrive and New Hampshire babies thrive, then New Hampshire families and the community that they live in thrive,” Sen. Suzanne Prentiss, a West Lebanon Democrat and co-sponsor of the new bill, said at the rally. “They are the bedrock of the Granite State.”