Mothers and advocates with the Black Women’s Roundtable gathered at the Capitol Thursday and called on the Legislature to prioritize women and children this year. 

Speakers asked lawmakers to act on a range of issues from midwifery care to child care, but all their priorities centered around making women more financially secure in the poorest state with the worst maternal health outcomes. 

Advocates brought with them “money bags,” which they said would be placed on the desks of all lawmakers.

“Inside those money bags are coins that represent access to child care, access to health care, higher wages for families and the need to move paid family and medical leave,” said Robin Jackson, director of policy advocacy for the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable. “We are not asking you anymore – we are telling you ‘Secure the bag for Mississippi families.’”

Shequite Wilson-Johnson, a mother of five and assistant professor at Mississippi Valley State University, spoke about her struggle to birth her children safely and with job security – even when she worked her way up the social ladder. 

Wilson-Johnson was a teenager when she had her first baby. By her second child, she was in college, working up until the day she gave birth. With her third, she was married. With her fourth, she had a master’s degree, and with her fifth, a doctoral degree. But she never got paid time off, and she was laid off twice after giving birth – including with her last child.

“Understand this: No matter how hard I worked, no matter how hard I tried, no matter the education I had, no matter the standard of life, I was still told, ‘You don’t matter,’” Wilson-Johnson said.

There are currently two bills moving through the Legislature that would create the state’s first paid parental leave mandate for state employees. The bills wouldn’t help people like Wilson-Johnson, but they would be a start, and might encourage the private sector to follow suit and “do the right thing,” said Rep. Kevin Felsher, R-Biloxi, and author of the House’s bill. 

But it isn’t just about the money. Studies show that paid maternity leave drastically benefits the health of mothers and babies – including reducing postpartum depression and infant mortality, and increasing bonding and breastfeeding.

There are a dozen states that mandate paid parental leave across both private and public sectors. But the majority of states offer paid parental leave to state employees. 

Sen. Angela Turner-Ford, D-West Point, voiced her support for paid leave during the press conference.

“Our state does lag behind, whether it’s welcoming a newborn, caring for an elderly loved one, or managing a personal health crisis,” Turner-Ford said. “… Come back next year if we have not passed this legislation, hold us responsible, make us do more.”

Wilson-Johnson, of Indianola, also struggled to find adequate and affordable child care for her children, even when she worked at a child care center – a common plight for mothers everywhere. 

Two out of five child care workers in America make so little they need public assistance to support their families. In Mississippi, there are so few child care employees willing to work under the industry’s conditions that it’s affecting every other sector of the job market, with moms staying out of work because they can’t find a safe day care in which to place their children. It’s costing Mississippi $8 billion, according to a report from the Mississippi Early Learning Alliance. 

Bills aimed at allocating funds from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant, or TANF, to create child care vouchers for needy parents died in committee. 

Advocates commended lawmakers for passing 12 months of postpartum Medicaid coverage in 2023, calling it “a win” – but emphasized the need to do more, and quickly. Mississippi, the state with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation, was among the last states to ensure that these mothers could continue their Medicaid coverage for a year after they gave birth – the time during which most maternal deaths occur. 

In fact, between 2018 and 2023, the Mississippi Legislature only passed four bills related to maternal health, according to a study by researchers at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. 

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann told Mississippi Today he recognizes the need for legislative action supporting women, and that’s why he founded the Women, Children and Families Study Group, a Senate committee tasked with reviewing the needs of women and children in the state, in 2022. He said more maternal health bills were passed in the last two years than ever before. 

“This session, I hope to build on that progress by passing bills for paid maternity leave for state employees and enhancing postpartum depression screening to ensure more effective and efficient care,” Hosemann said.