Bill Text: MI HR0102 | 2009-2010 | 95th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: A resolution to memorialize the United States Congress to enact H.R. 521, the Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act of 2009.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Passed) 2009-06-25 - Adopted [HR0102 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2009-HR0102-Introduced.html
Reps. Green, Horn, Hildenbrand, Walsh, Meekhof, Byrum, Haines, Moss, Denby, Lund, Lori, Kurtz, Daley, DeShazor, Rocca, Corriveau, Hansen, Terry Brown, Lindberg, Elsenheimer, Mayes, Bennett, Lemmons, Young, Geiss, Simpson, Genetski, Opsommer, Pearce, Dean, Espinoza, Lahti, Nerat, McMillin, Schuitmaker, Angerer, Meadows, Valentine, Roy Schmidt, Bauer, Stanley, Bledsoe, Durhal, Miller, Huckleberry, Kennedy, Marleau, Liss, Haase, Constan, Barnett, Scripps, Robert Jones, Coulouris, Griffin, Tlaib, Wayne Schmidt, Agema, Booher, Knollenberg, Rogers, Kowall, Paul Scott, Ball, Proos, Spade, Neumann, Stamas, Tyler, Caul, Crawford, Bolger, Haveman, Moore, Pavlov, Meltzer, Rick Jones, Sheltrown, Leland, Smith, Slavens, Roberts, Slezak, Haugh, Jackson and Cushingberry offered the following resolution:
House Resolution No. 102.
A resolution to memorialize the United States Congress to enact H.R. 521, the Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act of 2009.
Whereas, Each year approximately one in every 160 pregnancies in the United States ends in stillbirth. Stillbirth is the term health care providers use to describe the unplanned loss of a fetus due to natural causes late in the pregnancy. Stillbirths are quite different than miscarriages. A miscarriage often occurs during the first-trimester, whereas a stillbirth takes place during the third-trimester. Carrying the fetus until the third-trimester gives a greater chance for the fetus to live even if delivered prematurely. In at least half of all cases, physicians can find no cause for the pregnancy loss. In some cases of stillbirth, the mother may notice a decrease in fetal movement or a decrease in kicking of a fetus toward the end of the pregnancy. Many stillbirth mothers are young, in good health, and had used good prenatal care practices throughout the pregnancy. In 15 percent of cases, stillbirths happen during delivery and labor, devastating parents who had expected to deliver a healthy baby; and
Whereas, Despite the relatively high incidence of stillbirths yearly in the United States, scant research into the causes of this heartbreaking loss of pregnancy is performed. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collects data on stillbirths, but the data is incomplete and inconsistent. In many cases, the federal government, state governments, local governments, and health care providers all use a different definition of stillbirth. Comprehensive research into the causes and prevention of stillbirth are impossible without a nationally accepted definition of stillbirth and a standardized data collection protocol; and
Whereas, H.R. 521, the Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act of 2009, would promote stillbirth research by standardizing the definition of stillbirth and creating a national repository for stillbirth data. H.R. 521 would also authorize a campaign to increase public awareness of the risks for stillbirth and encourage the Director of the National Institutes of Health to allocate more resources to stillbirth research. The bill would also promote state legislation allowing the issuance of a Certificate of Birth Resulting in Stillbirth, as opposed to the more standard practice of issuing only a death certificate in the case of a stillbirth. Clearly, the parents and babies who have gone through this traumatic experience at least deserve this acknowledgment; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives, That we memorialize the United States Congress to enact H.R. 521, the Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act of 2009; and be it further
Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the members of the Michigan congressional delegation.
