Bill to Support Moms Who Served in the military signed into law - KOLO
RENO, Nev. (KOLO) - A bill aiming to help veterans who are also mothers was signed into law this month.
The Protecting Moms Who Served Act, allows the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to spend $15 million to provide education and support for new moms, including childbirth and parenting classes, nutrition counseling, breast pumps, and lactation support.
Registered nurse (RN) at the VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System, Lyn Cone says many of the proposed services are already in place.
“We get them in with providers within the VA, we get them coordinated with an obgyn provider in the community,” said Cone. “We provide lactation packages for them, which include breast pumps. We have lactation specialists, we have a baby shower once a year and then we follow them all the way through their care until they deliver and through post-partum.”
The law will allow the VA to expand and improve maternity care program for which the demand has been growing.
“Our women’s veterans are increasing every single year in the VAs nationwide and our maternity programs are growing with that so, we have a nice young population coming in,” said Shana Schenck, manager of the veteran women program at the VA Sierra Nevada. “A lot of new moms, new families coming in.”
Because of their service, women veterans are at an increased risk for complications while pregnant or during their postpartum stage.
“Our pregnant mothers are at higher risk for depression, anxiety, mental health issues if they have been exposed to military sexual trauma so it’s very important to get these veterans in as soon as possible,” said Cone.
In an email, Nevada U.S Senator Jacky Rosen said, “Our nation’s maternal health crisis impacts far too many women, including women veterans, and we know that these challenges are preventable. This bipartisan legislation will take important steps to ensure that women veterans in Nevada and across the country have access to coordinated, high-quality maternity care from VA and non-VA facilities.”
“Any gaps in care that may have been identified, anything we can do to grow those services to meet the needs of these maternal veterans is going to be fantastic.,” said Schenck.
The law will also require the government accountability office to study the maternal health of women, focusing on racial and ethnic disparities.
To see what else the funds will be invested on, click here.
“Our women’s program here in Reno it’s actually quite large,” said Cone. “We have a lot of women veterans who use all of our services, whether it be maternity, mental health, dietary, primary, we have specialist like cardiology, pulmonology. I think a lot of women out there don’t know that, and it would be great that we get the word out that we have all those services to provide.”
For more information about the VA Center for Women Veterans (CWV), click here.
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source: https://www.kolotv.com/2021/12/09/bill-support-moms-who-served-military-signed-into-law/
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