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Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, September 19 is National Stillbirth Prevention and Awareness Day. This day is set aside to recognize the tens of thousands of families in the United States who have endured a stillbirth.

More than 21,000 pregnancies in the United States end in stillbirth each year. Sadly, this exceeds the top five leading causes of death among children under 15 years of age. It is critical that we raise awareness and take action to improve this grave statistic.

I am proud to have been a cosponsor of the Maternal and Child Health Stillbirth Prevention Act that was signed into law last year. The law clarifies that resources like Count the Kicks can be deployed for stillbirth prevention. Count the Kicks is a simple and free tool that helps pregnant moms count their babies' movements during the third trimester. The results speak for themselves. In the first 10 years of the Count the Kicks campaign in Iowa, the State's stillbirth rate went down 32 percent while rates in the rest of the country remained static.

My work to improve maternal and child health doesn't stop there. I have introduced the bipartisan Healthy Moms and Babies Act. This bill is a comprehensive approach to addressing our maternal mortality crisis. Through community-based efforts, improved support for rural labor and delivery units, and increasing the use of technology like telehealth, we can prevent maternal and child mortality regardless of the ZIP Code.

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