Michigan House Passes Stillbirth/Kick Counting Legislation (August 18th, 2010)

I received an email from FirstCandle the other day with some great news on stillbirth legislation in Michigan:

Michigan passes stillbirth/kick counting legislation through its House of Representatives. Now it’s on to the Senate!

Representative Kevin Green (R-MI) recently announced that his legislation to help expectant mothers become better educated about the dangers of stillbirth and how they may be able to prevent it has passed through the House on its way to becoming state law.

The legislation, HB6091, requires doctors to distribute information to their pregnant patients about the risk of stillbirth and the importance of kick counting to help reduce the risk of stillbirth. Green, the legislation’s sponsor, has personal experience with the issue after losing his daughter Skylar Anne to stillbirth in 2007.

“Stillbirth is an equal opportunity destroyer,” Green told the House Health Policy Committee during emotional testimony. “Getting this information to expectant mothers early on in their pregnancy could help them prevent stillbirth. Kick counting is such a simple thing to do that could save your child’s life.”

The cause of Skylar’s death is still unknown, as is the same for nearly half of stillbirth cases each year. Despite the relatively high incidence of stillbirths in the U.S. (nearly one in 150), there is little research into the causes of this heartbreaking loss of pregnancy.

HB 6091 would amend the Public Health Code to require a health care professional to inform a woman during her pregnancy of the potential risk of stillbirth and the importance of monitoring a child’s movements in the last trimester.

“It allows women to have ownership in their own healthcare by being informed about this potential risk,” Green said.

“We lost a big part of our future when Skylar passed away,” Green said. “By passing this legislation, we acknowledge parents who have lost a child due to stillbirth and hope to find ways of preventing this from happening to other families in the future.”

Read the full text of the bill here:
Full text

Thank you for helping give a voice to our daughter Abigail and all families affected by stillbirth.