Mothers and babies are dying at extreme rates in Louisiana. Why?

By: Olivia Drawdy, Rudy Ceccon

Contributors: Santiago Rodriguez, Danielle Rancifer 

Lily Butsch was full of joy when she found out in the spring of 2025 that she was going to be a mother. She immediately went to tell her husband. Their excitement was so palpable that they told as many people in their lives who would listen about the good news. Butsch had wanted to be a mom for so long, and now she would finally have that honor. Just a few weeks after spreading the good news, Butsch had a miscarriage and lost her baby. 

Butsch and her husband tried to do everything right the next time the test was positive. She felt more fear than happiness. The couple decided not to tell anyone until Lily made it to the second trimester. But it happened again. Butsch felt invisible as her world came crashing down. 

“The world keeps going, but I’m still stuck in sadness,” Butsch said. “It’s not just the loss of the babies but also the loss of the belief that next time would be different.” 

High infant and maternal mortality rates have plagued Louisiana for decades. It has settled in the bottom five of all states and territories in both markers since 2020. The national average for infant mortality has hovered around 4.9-5.2% but Louisiana struggles with a stubbornly high 7.1%. The rate reflects the number of babies who die before their first birthday; almost 400 in Louisiana last year. 

“It's not an issue of ‘why are babies dying’”, said Daphne Wilson, director of the Louisiana chapter of the March of Dimes, which studies the problem. 

“If you start looking at it there” she said, “it's too late. This is an issue of ‘why are mothers not delivering healthy babies?’ That's the question you have to look into to change the outcome.” 

High pre-term birth rates, as well as pregnancy related drug use are major contributing factors to Louisiana’s high rate. To understand why these problems are so prevalent, you have to zoom out and see the bigger picture behind each statistic. The social determinants of health—as they are known by healthcare officials —have a high influence on the outcomes of a person’s health and the healthcare they receive, and play an undeniable role in maternal and infant health.

 Janene Grodesky, a professor with the LSU School of Public Health stressed the importance of determinants. 

“You cannot separate these maternal outcomes from those social determinants of health,” Grodesky said.  

“Things like healthcare access, associate economic status, infrastructure, transportation, and even religious institutions have an impact. You can't really separate any of those variables from these poor outcomes.” 

If a mother does not have stable determinants, she is automatically more at-risk for preterm and postpartum complications. Healthcare providers have to understand a patient's unique personal situations in order to provide care targeted for that individual in support of the best outcome. 

Babies born ahead of the 36-week mark are more likely to lead to cases of infant mortality. In their 2025 State Report Card, March of Dimes ranked Louisiana 51st out of all 52 U.S states and territories for preterm births — a major contributing factor to infant mortality across the state. 

Dr. Veronica Gillespie-Bell, a board-certified OBGYN practicing in New Orleans serves as the Medical Director for the Louisiana Prenatal Quality Collaborative for the Louisiana Department of Health, and she is determined to help come up with ways for healthcare providers to give the best care possible. 

Under Gillispe-Bell’s direction, the LaPQC is currently implementing policy requiring all moms to be screened for social determinants of health upon admission to the hospital, so they can provide them with need-specific care and put them in touch with resources needed to raise a healthy baby at home. 

“The goal is to understand where they may have needs,” Dr. Gillispie-Bell said. “The majority of the deaths — both infant and maternal — are not happening at or immediately after delivery. They're happening within one year postpartum, especially within the first six weeks.”

“If we can screen as they come into labor and delivery, that gives us time as a hospital to connect with social workers to make a plan that will meet their needs through that crucial 6-week postpartum window.” 

Healthy mothers make healthy babies, and maternal healthcare has to be a top priority in order to curb this issue. Some professionals believe that this crisis is not being treated as such by lawmakers and politicians.

Despite recent improvements to maternal healthcare at the government level in the state like extended medicaid coverage and expansion of insured doula services, experts and advocates are still calling for more allocated resources to pregnancy-related care and post-partum resources to ensure that mothers are healthy before, during and after pregnancy. 

“Our state government does not give expectant mothers - especially those within the at-risk population the resources they need to give birth to a happy and healthy baby,” Morgan Landry, Communications Director of Women United — a non-profit in Baton Rouge aimed at providing resources for women to raise healthy children —said. 

Because of the gaps in government allocated resources, many local non-profit organizations are stepping in to fill the gaps that the government can't always supplement. 

Project M.O.M and Women United aim to intervene during high-risk pregnancies to support the best outcome for moms and their children. 

Women United aims to connect mothers who are at-risk for pregnancy complications with resources like life safe housing, prescription assistance and even childcare costs. 

“Our goal is to try and make sure that they are bringing their children into the best home that they can, and that we are providing the resources they need in order to do that,” Landry said. 

“Whenever you call our hotline or you come to our center, you are directly connected to an impact coordinator who can get you in touch with better resources to set you up properly for bringing a baby into this world in any situation you might have,” Landry said.  

Maternal overdose is a major contributing factor of maternal death in Louisiana, and Project M.O.M aims to mitigate that by targeting women who may already be seeking help. 

“We are going to be in every region of the state, so that if there is an organization that is treating women with addiction or substance use and suddenly becomes pregnant, they can quickly put her in touch with us,” Carrie Templeton, director of Project M.O.M., said.  

Maddie’s Footprints is a non-profit located in the Acadiana region of Louisiana that assists grieving parents with the unexpected costs of losing a child, while connecting them with mental health support they may need. Mandy Cushing, their executive director, says that their services are continuing to grow across the region. 

“In 2024, we served 511 families across Baton Rouge and Acadiana. This year, we expect to exceed that. We've already helped close to 100 families in both areas just in the past three months. So we will be hitting our $2 million payout since we first started in May,” Cushing said.

Even though there are people trying to solve the problem of infant mortality and improve maternal healthcare in the state, women across Louisiana like Lily Butsch will continue to carry the weight of the children they have lost for years. They will feel the absence.  They will never forget the joys their children once brought them. Most importantly, they will never stop wanting better from the systems around them to support them to bring a healthy, happy baby into the world someday.