(Source: MIRS.news, Published 09/26/2024) Hospitals would need to stock up on IUDs – or T-shaped birth control that's inserted into the uterus – to offer to women immediately after they give birth, under legislation considered Thursday by the Senate Health Policy Committee. 

Thursday's legislation by Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) aims to provide women with a strong birth control method, if they're interested, immediately after delivering a baby, without having to wait until a postpartum appointment weeks later. 

The IUD – or the long-acting, reversible intrauterine device – is known to be highly effective, with Paragard, the copper IUD provider, reporting the product to be more than 99 percent effective. According to one obstetrics and gynecology blog, the hormonal IUD option has shown to fail 0.2 percent of the time, and the non-hormonal version has failed 0.8 percent of the time. 

On Thursday, the Senate Health Policy Committee heard testimony on McMorrow's SB 987 , SB 988 and SB 1006 . 

Together, SB 987 and SB 988 would require private insurers and the state's Medicaid insurance to cover the insertion of IUDs and contraceptive implants, as well as related anesthesia services, as part of a patient's labor and delivery care. 

Meanwhile, SB 1006 would instruct hospitals operating maternity units to ensure IUDs and implants are available. 

While providing testimony, McMorrow recalled her own experiences after giving birth to her daughter in early 2021. She remembered her and her husband sleeping in shifts, amid a 24-hour daily cycle of feeding and changing diapers. As she struggled with breastfeeding, postpartum depression and navigating life as a mom, "nothing seemed harder than getting to one appointment just for myself." 

"I remember how hard it was to remember to eat and to take a shower, and how I didn't want to take my eyes off of her, even for a minute," McMorrow said. "For many new mothers just like me, securing contraception after birth is rarely top of mind, or really anywhere near the top of the list." 

By inserting an IUD immediately after giving birth, McMorrow said new moms can cross one thing off their list, lifting the worry of becoming pregnant again before she and her new family are ready. 

Dr. Suha Syed, an obstetrics and gynecology resident at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, recalled one of her patients faced a condition during pregnancy called cardiomyopathy, which is a heart muscle disease that linked her pregnancy to deadly risks. 

Syed said the woman, who she called Samantha, wanted to receive a contraceptive implant after giving birth, not wanting to experience another high-risk pregnancy. 

"Unfortunately, I was unable to offer Samantha the immediate postpartum (long-acting reversible contraception (LARC)) she desired. The hospital I was working at when Samantha gave birth does not have implants stocked for inpatient use," Syed said. "Samantha never showed up for a postpartum appointment, and I don't know if she ever got the highly effective birth control she was hoping for." 

Dr. Shira Fishbach, an Ann Arbor-based OB-GYN, talked about a patient named Jane she met during the labor and delivery of her fifth child. Because she was the primary caretaker of her other four children, Fishbach said Jane frequently could not attend prenatal care visits at a high-risk OB-GYN clinic. 

Fishbach said Jane often forgot to take her oral contraception, which is what led to her latest pregnancy. 

She said if patients already have an epidural – a pain-reducing injection in the back – they will have "excellent pain control," reducing pain concerns when it comes to the injection of an IUD. Fishbach explained this was something she could tell Jane about, as she had a history of trauma during pelvic exams. 

"I'm happy to share that she did get a post-placental IUD after her delivery, and that she and her children are healthy and doing well," Fishbach said.