HJNO Jul/Aug 2023

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  JUL / AUG 2023 53 Rebekah Gee, MD, MPH, MSHPR, FACOG CEO/Founder Nest Health are focused on improvement, and I believe that progress is possible. In the decade I’ve spent in leadership roles at the Louisiana Department of Health, I worked with dedicated healthcare leaders statewide to improve quality and address preventable maternal mortality and morbidity. Together we launched impactful partnerships, such as the Birth Outcomes Initiative, and improved health indicators for reproductive-aged women andtheirbabiesbyimplementingevidence- based interventions. We established the Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative and a robust review of each maternal death in Louisiana. We launched Taking Aim at Cancer in Louisiana, resulting in partnerships across competitive health systems and providers that have resulted in better access to breast cancer screening. In 2016, Governor Edwards’ Medicaid expansion plummeted the uninsured rate for women of reproductive age. The Medicaid expansion has made a profound difference to women by bringing improved access to care not just during pregnancy, but also before and after. Policy changes such as decreasing violence against women, raising the minimum wage, promoting pay equality, paid family and medical leave, paid sick leave, affordable child care, and universal pre-K are long overdue and can be of great benefit to women and society. If we believe that we should improve the state of women’s health in Louisiana, then we must dedicate ourselves to change. We must not accept that we will remain at the bottom of all the good lists and state rankings related to health outcomes. We must acknowledge that if we care about children, we also need to care about their mothers. We also must acknowledge that women and our children are our future. As a parent of three daughters, I owe it to them to fight for their health and their future, as we all should for each woman and girl child born in our state. The work ahead is not easy — it means we must address the status of women in systematic ways by valuing them and their work equally, including the work they do as mothers and caregivers. We must realize that gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls are essential elements of a thriving and healthy Louisiana. n Rebekah Gee, MD, MPH, MSHPR, FACOG, is an OB/ GYN and CEO/Founder of Nest Health,a home visit- ing and virtual care company focused on whole per- son primary care for families with children. Prior to founding Nest, Gee served as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health where she over- saw the implementation of Medicaid expansion and focused efforts on reducingmaternal morbidity and mortality.Gee served in numerous state and national policy roles, includingmedical director for Louisiana Medicaid,medical director forTitleV,and director of Louisiana’s Birth Outcomes Initiative. In 2017 she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Gee lives in New Orleans and is married to David Patron. She is the parent of five, including two sets of twins. women in Louisiana are almost twice as a likely to give birth preterm. Violence against women is one of the top causes of preventable maternal death, and the risk of homicide is twofold higher for women and girls who are pregnant or recently post- partum. Healthcare systems and providers are intimately aware of the impact of poverty and racial bias on health outcomes for women in Louisiana. Doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals bear witness to the impact of intimate partner violence. Women’s healthcare providers see the devastating result of new laws meant to prevent elective abortion on patient safety. Women have been harmed because treatment for common conditions such as miscarriage can be similar to treatments that result in elective abortions. Many providers are petrifiedof criminal penalties if their actions are misconstrued, and women are unnecessarily hemorrhaging as a result. These are unprecedented times. Never before has a law prevented me and my colleagues from doing what we were trained to do to keep our patients safe. Despite these challenges to women’s well-being and equality, we know that we must choose to focus our energies and efforts to work together to find real solutions to the most pressing issues facing our state. I have seen firsthand the success that comes from building healthy coalitions of like-minded individuals that