For a year, Idaho pregnant moms’ deaths weren’t analyzed by this panel. But new report is coming

Newly reassembled after Idaho lawmakers let it disband, a group of Idaho medical experts is preparing a report about pregnant moms who died in 2023.

The Idaho Maternal Mortality Review Committee met Thursday for the first time since being disbanded in 2023. 

The committee’s next report is due to the Idaho Legislature by Jan. 31, as required in the new Idaho law that re-established the group.

The review committee’s purpose has been to identify, review and analyze maternal deaths in Idaho — and offer recommendations to address those deaths.

The committee’s last report, using data from 2021, found Idaho’s maternal mortality rate nearly doubled in recent years — and most of those deaths were preventable.

The committee was previously housed in the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. But the new law that reinstated it placed the committee under the Idaho Board of Medicine, which licenses doctors. 

The committee is working to first address maternal death cases in 2023, and will then look into 2022 cases, Idaho Board of Medicine General Counsel Russell Spencer told the Sun in an interview.

That’s “because the Legislature would like the most up-to-date” information available, Idaho Board of Medicine spokesperson Bob McLaughlin told the Sun in an interview.

Idaho has several laws banning abortion. In the 2024 legislative session, Idaho lawmakers didn’t amend those laws, despite pleas from doctors for a maternal health exception. 

The review committee, under the Department of Health and Welfare, analyzed de-identified medical records, health statistics, autopsy reports and other records related to maternal deaths. 

The committee’s work “was not intended to imply blame or substitute for institutional or professional peer review,” according to a Health and Welfare website. “Rather, the review process sought to learn from and prevent future maternal deaths.”

The reinstated committee, under the Board of Medicine, will still analyze de-identified cases. The cases “will not be used for disciplinary actions by the Board of Medicine,” the board’s website says.

An advisory body to the Board of Medicine, the review committee is meant to “identify, review, and analyze maternal deaths and determine if the pregnancy was incidental to, or a contributing factor in, the mother’s death,” the Board of Medicine’s website says. 

The board’s website says the committee report “will provide insights into maternal death trends and risk factors in Idaho year over year.” 

The review committee hasn’t yet fully reviewed or published findings from Idaho maternal deaths in 2022 and 2023.

In 2023, 13 Idaho maternal death cases were identified for review, and 15 cases were identified in 2022, Spencer told the Sun.

But he said the actual number of maternal death cases to be reviewed could be reduced, for instance, if the person wasn’t pregnant or if the death occurred outside the year the committee was analyzing.

Spencer told the Sun the committee has already reviewed seven of the 13 maternal death cases identified in 2023. 

The committee will also work to ensure that each case is “correctly associated with maternal mortality,” he said. 

“If so, then it will go in front of the committee, and the committee will determine whether it was related to the pregnancy or if it was incidental to the pregnancy,” Spencer said.