On Sept. 16, Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller convened a third hearing of the Cook County Board’s Health and Hospitals Committee to hear from stakeholders about ways Illinois can better protect women during and after pregnancy and childbirth. 

Miller represents Cook County’s 6th District, which includes Homewood.

In June 2023, Miller held the first hearing on the topic after reports showed that in 2020, Illinois had a maternal mortality rate of 23 deaths per 100,000 live births, and for Black women, that rate was six times higher — surpassing the national average. 

Although the Illinois Department of Public Health noted an improvement in 2024, with Black women being three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related conditions than white women, the disparity remains alarming, according to Miller.

“The United States has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the developed world, and in Illinois our rates mirror the national average. We cannot continue to accept these preventable deaths as the norm, and that’s why I sponsored legislation to declare maternal morbidity and mortality a public health crisis and convened a third maternal health hearing to discuss ways we can stop these preventable deaths from happening, we need to keep ringing the alarm,” Miller said.

During the hearing, the committee heard testimony from Dr. Lisa Masinter, IDPH’s deputy director of the Office of Women’s Health and Family Services; Dr. Erica Taylor, Cook County Physicians Association president; Persephone Ross, a doula from the Cook County Health’s Doula Program; Dara Cohen, CEO of Family Focus; and additional representatives from Cook County Health, the Cook County Department of Public Health, CountyCare and other outside experts on the maternal health crisis.