Save Our Moms (with Representative Lauren Underwood and Veranda Rodgers)

Jasmine Clark: Hi, everyone. Thanks for listening. I'm Jasmine Clark.

Amanda Weinstein: I'm Amanda Weinstein.

Rachel Vindman: I'm Rachel Vindman.

Jasmine: And you're listening to the Suburban Women Problem. Welcome back everybody. 

This week I had the incredible opportunity to talk to Congresswoman Lauren Underwood about maternal health care in this country and the crisis of Black maternal mortality.

Later on we'll be chatting with Veranda Rodgers, a suburban mom from Ohio who founded Pregnant with Possibilities. And work like hers is so necessary because maternal mortality, especially Black maternal mortality is a real crisis in this country. And I think some people just don't know how serious the problem is.

So Amanda, can you let our listeners know some of the statistics about maternal mortality? Because honestly, when I look at these statistics, I am shocked.

Amanda: Yeah, so let's break it down. So a lot of people don't realize how risky pregnancy actually is. Like, when we think in our brains of what is something really risky, we might think of something like skydiving, like that seems really risky. You might die from that, right? But actually you're 24 times more likely to die from pregnancy than skydiving in this country. I’ve done both, and I can tell you, childbirth is riskier, hands down. 

Maternal mortality rates are more than twice as bad in the U.S. as any other developed nation, right? This is awful. We often have this idea of, “well, our private healthcare system, we get the best outcomes, right? Even though we have to pay a little more.” This is not true. We are getting worse outcomes with our healthcare system. And Black moms die at three to four times the rate of white moms, one of the widest of all racial disparities in women's health.

This is a serious issue and the issue has been getting worse, not better, over time. And we just don't hear enough people talking about it.

Jasmine: When it comes to maternal mortality, a lot of times people think, “oh, this is a issue that affects poor people,” or “this is an issue that affects uninformed people,” or “this is an issue that affects people that don't have health insurance,” but that's not necessarily the case. If you listen to Beyonce, she has a story to tell. There are women who are rocking it on the tennis court, such as Serena Williams, and she tells her story often about what she had to deal with when she was giving birth.

And then there are women like Shalon Irving, who was an epidemiologist with the CDC. This is a woman who had a PhD. She worked in medical science and despite having all the information, despite having healthcare, you know, despite being surrounded by people who know what's going on and being able to have really informed conversations about her pregnancy, she still died.

So when it comes to this, we have to acknowledge that there is a racial disparity when it comes to maternal mortality, where Black women are a lot more likely to die –– whether or not you're educated, whether or not you have insurance. So this is not necessarily about socioeconomics. There's something deeper going on here.

Rachel: I've had a lot of experience advocating ––  either for myself or for my mom when she had brain cancer— and I learned a lot about how to communicate with medical personnel. You really have to advocate for yourself, but I think the issue that we see as women, and we just, we all know people who've had medical experiences of physicians just not listening.

And it's also true that women are more likely to be sent home when they're having a heart attack or stroke because they're not listened to, they're told, “it's anxiety, you're fine. You just need to relax,” and they don't address it. So this is actually also a known problem.

Even my sister-in-law Cindy, she has her PhD, she’s really well-informed on medical issues. And she had a similar issue. It was her second child, and they just didn't believe her. This is like… everyone knows someone who's had this. I'm not faulting every healthcare provider in every medical provider. But there's something there. So…

Amanda: There absolutely is.

Rachel: You know, we have to take a hard look at that and we have to be willing to examine these issues if we're going to fix them.

Amanda: Being heard is so important. So for me, I felt very heard by my OB-GYN, right? I had the resources to go out there and find who I thought was the best in my entire area because I had the resources and probably also the neuroses to go do this. When I didn't feel heard was actually after I gave birth.

So I don't think a lot of people know with maternal mortality, most of those deaths occur after birth –– not during birth. And this is actually when women most need to be heard and not feel invisible in that room. And especially with my second child, when there was a very strict rooming-in policy, I felt invisible as soon as she was born. 

And I've had, and I know, a friend who, ––  so hemorrhaging is a huge issue for maternal mortality. It doesn't just occur when you're giving birth, but it can occur days after. And this happened to her, and this was not her first child. And she was not listened to repeatedly where she said, “This is not normal. This is not normal.” And they were like, “Oh, you know, you're overreacting. You will get, you know, bleeding afterwards.” And it got to the point where she could have died, had she not gone back to the hospital days after. 

And so we really need to think about policies, especially once that baby is born, that focus so much on the baby that we are just forgetting about women. When you look at spending on federal and state funding that goes to maternal and child health, the vast majority of that spending goes for the health of those infants, not the health of the mothers.

Jasmine: Absolutely. As someone who is actually in a legislature, I can say that we address this all the time. We're always talking about maternal mortality. We even put together a study committee on maternal mortality. 

And I will never forget the first time that the study committee convened one of the first and, you know, people were presenting the numbers and the numbers were pretty dire. Uh, you know, the national numbers are bad, but in Georgia, the numbers are really, really bad. And so the people on the study committee, their question was not, “How do we stop people from dying?” Their question was, “How do we change the definition of maternal mortality so our numbers don't look so bad?” 

I think that was an eye-opening moment for me, where I realized the people sitting on that panel, the people sitting on that committee, their goal, their objective was not about saving lives. They cared about saving the state's reputation.

Amanda: The reason why they're changing those stats, right, is that basically tells you, you need to do something right?

Jasmine: Yes!

Rachel: Just like Ron DeSantis in Florida with the COVID deaths. I mean, it's the same thing. Like we just don't want to look bad. We don't really care that it's happening. We just don't want anyone to know that it's happening. If we can hide it, it's just so much easier than solving the problem…

Amanda: Because it's harder to give women the resources, and it's… some of those resources are access to healthcare, universal healthcare.

Rachel: So what did you guys do in Georgia, Jasmine? Like what did you…

Jasmine: We ended up expanding pregnancy Medicaid. The recommendation was a year. They gave it to us for six months. 

But the problem is a recommendation was made, healthcare experts, all these people came in, they made a recommendation. The recommendation did not actually happen. Like. Didn't happen. You know, we got half of it, and it was enough to say we did something, even though they would not just do what needs to be done.

And the reason why went back to funding. And I feel like trying to change stats, trying to change definitions, trying to change policies so that you look better is just a way of, you know, whisking the problem out of view.

Amanda: We need access to health care. Like this is a major health event that many women go through. We need access to health care. 

We also need access to paid leave. You know what's not great for a woman's health? Going back to work a couple of days after she has her child because she can't afford to take the time off. Paid leave is huge for the wellbeing of mothers. And when we put these stats in our legislators’ faces saying, “Look, this is an issue. People are dying.” It makes them want to act. I hope, I hope it would make them want to act.

Jasmine: It depends on who you're talking about with, let’s be honest.

Amanda: I think that's why we have to talk about it.

Rachel: We do, yeah.

Amanda: The more of us that talk about it, the more you'll see it's not super left-wing, progressive. And men need to talk about it too.

Jasmine: It's very interesting because in preparation for this episode, almost by happenstance, a bunch of my friends began sharing their birth stories. And so I went to tea with one of my friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. And we talked about this.

Amanda: Can I just say, I love that you go to tea with your friends and I want to go do that.

Jasmine: Yes. So I went to tea and we were talking and I was telling her, “Oh, I'm about to do this episode on maternal mortality”. And she was like, “I'm so glad that you all are talking about this.” And she goes on to tell me the story about how she was basically forced to go into labor a little early because even though she did not feel like, you know, she was ready to give birth. And her doctor, who was also a Black woman, also agreed with her. Both her and her doctor's decision was overridden by a perinatologist who said, “Nope, this baby is coming out right now.”

And so in the process of going through that process, she almost died and the baby almost died. So, you know, we have this situation where she didn't feel listened to.

And then I have another friend who just told her story about how she basically was in labor from Monday to Thursday. Monday to Thursday.

Amanda: Oh no!

Jasmine: When she was in labor on Monday, the only thing they would give her to eat were ice chips. And she almost died as well. That is her only child. She has not had another child since. This is a Black woman. These are two Black women. 

Even in my own birth story, I won't go into too much detail, but I will say this: I basically had to tell my doctor, “This baby is coming right now. And I know your training tells you that it doesn't happen this fast, and I don't have training in obstetrics, but I do have a child already. And I know what it feels like when a baby is coming out of my body. So I'm telling you this baby is coming now.”

And when she finally did check, she was like, “You were right. The baby is coming.” And my daughter was born not breathing. And I oftentimes wonder what might have been the result if she had not finally relented and listened to what I was telling her.

These things are real. This is a real thing. This is not made up. This is a real issue that really does need to be addressed in our country. And I'm speaking for Georgia and needs to be addressed in our state.

Amanda: I just feel we don't have pregnant women in enough people's minds talking about this. So I think about this with the vaccine. So women were not included, I've read, in the vaccine trials who are pregnant, right. So they're not included, but now the vaccine is out and now they're supposed to go to their doctor and get this vaccine, even though they weren't in the trials. So Jasmine, I'd love to get your thoughts on this.

Jasmine: So generally speaking, a pregnant women are not included in trials for vaccines. If you're pregnant and you’re in the middle of a pandemic and there's this new vaccine and you know that no pregnant women have been in the trials, then I completely understand the fear or the hesitation. 

We do now have data that shows that the vaccine is safe for pregnancy. There have not been any adverse effects associated with pregnancy in the vaccine, but you know, that kind of came with time. And so… but at the same time, we also have data that even before the Delta variant, women who were pregnant got much sicker than their non-pregnant counterparts.

Rachel: You know, this idea of going to your doctor or having a doctor is, you know, not a universal one in our country. So while, you know, I think medical care for pregnant women is often as we discussed, covered, through state programs, it's a lot harder to have that coverage for just everyday stuff. And there's a higher threshold.

It's just a lot more difficult when you don't have that fetus along with you, then you kind of cease to be as important or as eligible for routine medical care.

Amanda: And that’s especially important for communities where they lack access to healthcare and they don't have that doctor nearby and experts are suggesting that we need a strategy to connect, you know, people in those communities to the healthcare community. Our next guest does this every day… Veranda Rodgers is a mom in Ohio and the founder of Pregnant with Possibilities Resource Center. Veranda. Welcome to the podcast.

Veranda Rodgers: Good morning and thank you for having me.

Amanda: So I just have to say, I know Veranda. I am on the advisory board because my friend Ashley introduced me to Veranda, and I've gotten to work with Veranda over the last few months. So tell us a little bit about what you're doing with Pregnant with Possibilities. 

Veranda: Absolutely. So I am the founder and executive director of Pregnant with Possibilities. We're a non-profit organization that started in 2015. Our goal is dedicated to three pillars. The first one is sexual health education for youth in Grades 6-12. We have a support program where we service women who are pregnant or who have a child under the age of one. 

And then the last one is our women's empowerment initiative. And so that is… essentially everything that we do, we say, “birth possibilities.” The term pregnancy means that you have something inside of you that you need to give birth to. So that could, that could literally be your baby, or it could be you want to give birth to your degree or business, whatever it is, your goals, we want to ensure through our women's empowerment initiatives that we're helping, um, all of our program participants give birth to their possibilities.

Rachel: That's amazing. What a great program.

Jasmine: Yeah, I'm really excited about the first pillar because I have really been on trying to get a more comprehensive sex education here in Georgia. I appreciate that that is a part of your program. So I just want to plug that because I think that's amazing.

Veranda: Yes. Thank you. So I actually realized my true calling in the middle of my master's program. I had already received one degree and I was working on the second. When I took some emotional intelligence courses ––

Rachel: Nice!

Veranda: –– and I found out that what I was passionate about was to essentially go back into the community and to serve the individuals who could have been my story, could have looked like my family member or the people closest to me.

And so that's how this was kind of birthed in the middle of that program. And so I told my husband, my vision... so let me say, my husband, we've been together since I was in eighth grade, pregnant at 16, we built a life together over these last 20 some years at this point. 

So that was just my goal. We started with teens because teens are the heart and the passion of who I am and they speak to me. But as I dived into the work, I realized that here in Cuyahoga County, we are failing when it comes to infant mortality. And so the reality is, is Black babies are almost three to four times likely to die as compared to a Caucasian baby. And so, although teens and teen pregnancy was a prominent component to the work that we did, we had to do more.

Amanda: Yeah. So you mentioned the stat, you just said that Black babies are dying at four times the rate of white babies. And we also know maternal mortality for Black women is higher than for white women. You are kind of like a boots on the ground person, right, seeing what people in these communities are facing. What cracks do you see in the system that are causing these disparities?

Veranda: Okay, so let's first talk about racism has now been declared a public health crisis.

Amanda: Absolutely. 

Veranda: Because systems have been put in place that disenfranchise, keep people disqualified or unable to access things. So for instance, our office is located in Maple Heights. We're considered to be in a birth desert, which means for a mother to deliver a baby, she has to travel anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes to a hospital that can actually deliver that baby. That’s an issue.

We also have families that live in communities that don't have access to quality produce, so they're not eating healthy meals.

We also have to talk about toxic stress. Because toxic stress is a component that a lot of African-American women face. And so that affects babies. That affects mothers, their health, that affects their wellbeing. So there are so many things, even the social determinants of health that we have to bring into play.

People don't have access to quality healthcare. So those are all the things that we have to think about when we talk about infant mortality. We have to address the systems at the root and sometimes people who are at the top making decisions don't have a real understanding of the people that are on the ground and what their needs are. So there's a gap when we talk about services made.

Jasmine: It's nice to, I mean, it's not a good thing, but it's good to hear that your organization is really focusing on those social determinants of health. And also acknowledging that systemic racism has played a part in where we are today. And if we don't address systemic racism, the numbers are going to keep climbing.

Amanda: I love that you talked about access so much, and I know that some of what you do with your organization is you connect women with access to the resources that they need. Whether that's, you know, their education or getting them connected with doctors, do you have any success stories that really stuck with you, any of the women that you’ve worked with?

Veranda: There is one person who always stands out. She comes to heart often and that's because she stays very connected. So, she came to us in the middle of the pandemic. A lot of organizations were trying to figure out how to pivot. They closed their doors. There are some organizations that even today, in 2021, are still not open for clients to come in face to face.

And so this client called and was like, “Hey, I've been calling around other agencies. I have a baby that's due in 30 days. I absolutely need help.” She needed essentially everything for that new baby that was on the way. So we actually helped provide her with moving to a bigger unit, to a four-bedroom unit for her and her children. We actually were able to get her, you know, a car seat. We were also the first organization here in Cuyahoga county to start to distribute essential items. So diapers, wipes, baby food or formula –– that is not provided with any federal assistance. Families should not have to choose between paying my light bill versus getting my baby diapers or formula.

We also have a community health worker on staff that helps address all of the barriers for families. So whatever they're dealing with, if they need furniture, if they need housing, if they need access to a mental health professional, all of those things. We connect them to ensure that we can address the barriers in their lives so that they can thrive as well.

Jasmine: That's amazing. I love that analogy of you can't pour from an empty cup. And so, uh, thank you so much Veranda for joining the show. And after the break I'll be joined by Congresswoman Lauren Underwood. Stick around for that interview coming up after the break.

BREAK

Jasmine: Our guest today is the representative from Illinois’ 14th district. She is a registered nurse, the youngest Black woman ever to serve in Congress, and she's been spearheading legislation to protect families in her district and across the country. Representative Lauren Underwood, welcome to the podcast.

Congresswoman Lauren Underwood: Hi, nice to meet you!

Jasmine: It's nice to meet you too. Actually, I have not gotten to formally meet you, but you and I were running at the same time, and there was a time where you were on a panel at a thing that I was like attending. And I was like, man, she is a rockstar. And so then I was so excited when you got elected. I got elected too, but it was just like really exciting.

Rep. Underwood: Congratulations, thank you!

Jasmine: So I love the story of why you first decided to run for Congress. And in fact, it came up in an interview I did with Christina Reynolds of Emily's list earlier this summer. So could you tell our listeners about why you decided to run back in 2017?

Rep. Underwood: Sure. So I'm a registered nurse and I've spent my career working to expand healthcare coverage in communities across our country. I worked to implement the Affordable Care Act at the federal level, and then I joined the Obama administration, where I worked on public health, emergencies, and disasters, things like Ebola, the water crisis in Flint.

And I stayed in the administration until the very last day. I knew that I didn't want to help the Trump team take away healthcare coverage for people. So I decided to return home to Illinois and, you know, I was living my best life. I had gotten a new job. And I happened to go to my then-congressman's one and only public event of the year.

It was a town hall and it was during the time that the House was considering Obamacare repeal. And he said that he was only going to support a version of repeal that let people with pre-existing conditions keep their healthcare coverage. So here I am, this nurse who worked on the ACA that has a pre-existing condition.

And, you know, I believed him, I took him at his word. And then literally two weeks later, he voted for the American Healthcare Act, which is the version of repeal that did the opposite. It made it cost prohibitive for people like me to get affordable coverage. And I just got really upset and said, “You know what? It's on, I'm running.” And decided to launch this campaign. And I spent the summer 2017 with a good friend, we figured out how to launch a campaign for Congress. I ended up running in a primary. I beat six guys, got 57% of the vote, and then beat that Congressman in November of 2018.

Jasmine: That’s an amazing story. We actually do have a lot in common, I’m also a legislator. I'm at the state level though. And throughout this pandemic I have been so frustrated about people just dismissing the science. And it's not just the public, it's my Republican colleagues who are also dismissing the science. So how do you deal with that frustration of just people kind of just ignoring the things that are right in front of their face or ignoring the experts, like yourself?

Rep. Underwood:  So one of the great things about being a member of Congress is that I have a bunch of tools available to me to kind of combat the scientific disinformation, misinformation, or just dismissing the evidence. And so one of the things that I'm willing to do is craft legislation and fight for its passage to make sure that the American people get the benefit of the expertise that we have available to us by the best scientists and researchers in our country.

And so, for example, the Trump administration was seeking to eliminate all science, or a lot of scientific evidence and climate change references, from their publicly facing website. So I crafted a bill specifically for the US Department of Agriculture because the farmers in my district needed that information, particularly about extreme weather events and forecasting, because there was a direct impact on their business. And I was so proud to be able to pass that legislation as part of the appropriations process in 2019. 

Now, is it a shame that I would have to spend my time in Congress doing that? Yes. But this is something that is critically important for the economic security of my constituents. You know, I do see this as a trend, but we have a lot of tools in place, at least as legislators, to set our country on a different path that is firmly rooted in the respect that we have for science, for data, for evidence, for innovation, for research.

Jasmine: I love that. And I think I liked that even more because you went to Congress, you have a background in nursing –– you are a nurse. And so, you know, people probably were like, “All she knows about is healthcare.” But you're like, “Listen, science is big, science affects more than just one part of our lives.” And so you're like, “You know what? Yes, I'm a nurse, but I'm looking out for my rural farmers as well.” 

But you are a nurse, so let's talk healthcare policy. Healthcare policy has always been at the top of your list, but you've been fighting to improve the outcomes for Black moms in particular. Could you tell us a little bit more about the Black maternal mortality crisis and why it is so dangerous to be a Black mom in the United States of America.

Rep. Underwood: So in our country, Black birthing people are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy related complications than their white counterparts. And for every death, we have 70, seven zero, near misses. 

And so these disparities have been around my entire lifetime. I'm 34 years old. We've not seen any large-scale federal initiatives to try to save mom's lives. And it's something that I was certainly taught in my clinical training, but it was really kind of abstract. They'd just be like, “You know, there's something about Black women.” Not quite, you know, there's nothing wrong with us. Right? There's something going on with our healthcare system. It is the consequences of systemic racism in our healthcare system that one group of people, right? 

Black birthing people continue to have these awful birthing outcomes, where not only is baby impacted, right, but infant mortality rates have gotten a lot of attention over a number of decades. But maternal mortality is something that I found has really ignited so many of us as Black women, but we think it's just us. So it might just be that new mom who had a really challenging delivery thinking that she did something wrong, or we all have a girlfriend or sorority sister or a neighbor or a coworker, right, that has gone through this either severe, morbidity, or mortality. And we think of it as these isolated cases, but unfortunately this ends up almost being like a sorority that unites us as Black women, is the prevalence of this happening in our community.

And so I have firsthand experience with it. One of my good girlfriends from graduate school at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Shalon Irving, was pregnant with her first child, so excited about becoming a mom. And in January 2017, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Soleil. And then three weeks later, we lost her due to complications related to high blood pressure. And so literally while I was wrapping up my service in the Obama administration, Shalon was giving birth and then died.

And so I remember in like February of that year going down to Atlanta, to Shalon’s funeral, and the director of the CDC— the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. You know, we know we're very well familiar with the CDC now, as a result of COVID. The CDC director was at her funeral because she was a commissioned officer with the United States public health service, working at the CDC on health disparities, where she had devoted her career. The CDC director came to the funeral, spoke, and was like, “I don't know how this could have happened.” Yet it is so common.

Jasmine: Right.

Rep. Underwood: So I knew that if I won my election, that this is an issue that I would want to work on. So when I got into Congress in April of 2019, I teamed up with Alma Adams, who's a Congresswoman from North Carolina, and we co-founded and co-chair the Black Maternal Health Caucus, which is a group of members of Congress committed to ending our nation's maternal mortality crisis.

Now I thought it was just going to be Alma and I, you know, because in Congress we give ourselves names, right? So I thought it would be the two of us. And you know, the day we launched, we had the Majority Leader standing with us, we had so many incredible partners with us. And it quickly grew to over a hundred members, bipartisan.

And so in the spring of 2020, like literally two weeks before COVID shut, you know, the shutdowns happened, Senator Harris and I introduced a bill that we call the Momnibus. Which at the time was nine bills to comprehensively solve our nation's maternal mortality crisis, to address every clinical and nonclinical driver of these disparities.

Since Senator Harris is now the Vice President, we have reintroduced this legislation earlier this year with Senator Cory Booker. We added two bills to the package related to COVID because there's a dangerous intersection between COVID-19 and pregnancy. And we added a bill related to climate change because there was a study published in the summer of 2020 documenting the impact of extreme heat and air pollution on maternal health outcomes. And so we knew we had to take action.

So now we have 12 bills in the Momnibus, and we're making great progress towards enactment. 

Jasmine: I love that. So, Georgia is definitely on the wrong end of the spectrum when it comes to maternal mortality and especially Black maternal mortality. And it's something that ever since I've been elected, it's been talked about, like everyone talks about it and you know, we have come up with some solutions and it's so hard to even get the tiniest solution because everything is so hyper-partisan sometimes.

So I love what you all are doing in Congress. I love that this is being looked at as something that is good for all moms across our entire country because it is important. We should not be seeing the levels of maternal mortality that we do in a, you know, modern industrialized country.

Rep Underwood: That’s right. That’s right.

Jasmine: You just shouldn't. But at this point, I think, it’s kind of time to just understand that… what needs to be done so that we can fix the issue.

Rep Underwood: That's right. You know, these solutions are evidence-based, right? Like literally we're looking at the evidence, we're talking to clinicians and providers and these experts in our communities trying to scale up the interventions that we know that work. Right? It's not like this is a problem without a solution. We have the solution. We just have to be courageous enough to enact them. 

And to your point about partisanship, you know, one of the things that I think is misunderstood about this is that, you know, people… Because I'm a Democrat and, you know, Senator Booker's a Democrat and we're the lead sponsors of the bill, they think that, you know, this is some progressive solution to maternal mortality.

This is not the progressive solution to maternal mortality. This is a reflection of, you know, lawmakers of color prioritizing an issue, consulting the evidence, and crafting the solution. And so I think that that's what makes this coalition of our caucus so powerful is that, you know, we are able to demonstrate across an ideologic spectrum support for the issue so that the casual observer, which could be another policymaker, can't come back and say, “oh, those are just the Black Democrats. You know, I can't support that solution.” When really, you know, we've got CEOs of all types of companies helping us with our advocacy effort. We have a lot of people who are enthusiastic about the policy helping make those connections with our more conservative colleagues to kind of break down that stereotype of just because we have a person of color led-solution that it has to be ideologically in one direction or another.

Jasmine: Yes. I completely understand where you're coming from. Especially working in Georgia, we see similar things. And so sometimes, you know, it really does take getting everyone into the room and saying, this isn't about Democrat or Republican. This is really about helping people. And so I love what you're doing. I love that you have this amazing caucus, and I look forward to seeing, you know, amazing progress on this because I think it's very important that we tackle this issue.

So you were first elected while Donald Trump was president, which must have been kind of a strange and difficult time to enter Congress. So now we have Joe Biden as our president, and a Vice President in Kamala Harris. So, are you feeling more hopeful about getting the types of legislation like the Momnibus bill… are you feeling more hopeful that these things can pass now that we have a new administration?

Rep Underwood: Well it’s certainly been different working with the Biden team than it was working with the Trump team.

One of the things I promised to my community is I’ll work with anybody and everybody to deliver for them, right, to pass these bills, to offer healthcare solutions. And we were really effective during the Trump years. Six pieces of legislation that I wrote that were signed into law by President Trump. We've gotten a couple of bills signed so far this year by President Biden, right?

We're making good progress. And I am hopeful in particular about some of the healthcare legislation. For example, my Healthcare Affordability Act was included in the American Rescue Plan, the COVID relief legislation that we passed in March. Since April close to 3 million Americans have signed up for healthcare coverage thanks to this provision being signed into law. And it's just extraordinary. I mean, I've heard from constituents in my district, who've seen their family's healthcare premiums reduced by $1,800 a month.

Jasmine: Wow.

Rep. Underwood: A month. I mean, we are talking about significant savings and, you know, healthcare has been the number one issue in the electorate for a long time because costs were so high. People would come and talk about prescription drug costs being high. And what I really found is that it's because they were spending so much money on their premiums, right? Like honestly, they were just… they didn't have any more room in their budget for anything else.

And so now we're able to help those middle-class working families free up room in their budget, afford their healthcare and save lives. I’m really pumped.

Jasmine: You are so impactful. Just keep being great. So now let's jump into the part of our program where we do our fun rapid fire questions. Are you ready?

Rep. Underwood: Yes, I'm ready.

Jasmine: What is your get pumped song before a tough day in Congress?

Rep Underwood: Okay, so this is like, I think, um, when you drafted you’re probably thinking, let's say like Beyonce or something like that, but to be really candid with you, I have this throwback… you know, Whitney Houston did The Preacher's Wife soundtrack and sometimes you just need to get your mind right with these folks. You gotta be like in the zone. And that soundtrack is incredible. I highly recommend, and now it's gospel music, so you gotta be, you know, into that. But it's so good.

Jasmine: I actually, I love that album. That's a good album. So who's someone you work with that you were a little star-struck to meet?

Rep. Underwood: Oh man. I was star-struck to meet Stacey Abrams, your Georgia colleague. I was star-struck to meet Madeline Albright. I had bought Madeline Albright's memoir probably in like third… no, no, maybe like fifth grade. And, it was definitely elementary school –– fifth, sixth grade –– and read it. It was long. And then I met her like right after I got sworn into Congress and I was just like… she is just a legend in my opinion. And it was really fun.

Jasmine: That's awesome. What is your favorite bad movie?

Rep. Underwood: I watch a lot of bad movies. Okay. So most recently I watched this movie called Long Shot, which is Charlize Theron, and she's running for president, and falls in love with this guy that she used to babysit, who ends up being a speech writer on her campaign.

Jasmine: I know that movie!

Rep Underwood: It's so good. Kind of relevant to what I do, but I just think it's so funny.

Jasmine: I remember that movie, it's cute.

Rep. Underwood: It’s cute, right?

Jasmine: Yeah. So I teach at a nursing school, so I have to ask… what was your favorite class when you were in nursing school?

Rep. Underwood: Yes, so I was in the honors program at the University of Michigan at the School of Nursing. And my freshman year we had a class at 8:00 AM on a Monday, it was our honor seminar, and it was Policy and Politics and Nursing and Healthcare. And that's the class that set me on this path. 

And it was taught, actually by the Dean of our School of Nursing, Dr. Ada Sue Hinshaw, who was the first director of the NIH National Institute for Nursing Research. She's like this legend, teaching us at 8:00 AM on a Monday. I was the only one that was pumped. I think nurses should learn about policy as early as possible. It is so important. 
Jasmine: Absolutely. We teach a policy course at Emory as well. And I guest lecture. And, you know, as the resident, like, I'm not a nurse, but I am definitely the School of Nursing faculty that's also in politics. So I get to come in and do a lecture every semester.

Rep. Underwood: What a wonderful resource for your students.

Jasmine: And I love it. Because I mean, I get to really have like candid, frank conversations with them. All right. Who is your first teen heartthrob crush?

Rep. Underwood: Okay. So this is keeping it real. I had the biggest crush on Sean Puffy Combs. Oh, he was my man. Okay? I loved him. I mean, I spent years on Puffy.

Jasmine: I feel like mine would have been around that same time, Method Man. I don't know what it was about him, but like…

Rep. Underwood: All right. He was an attractive man!

Jasmine: Alright, so it's Saturday night, everyone is vaccinated. The weather is perfect. What are you doing?

Rep. Underwood: I am probably… just like dinner with my girlfriends. Not a lot of girlfriends. I don't, I can't do the large engagements on my time off. It's like maybe one or two and just giggling somewhere in like a back corner of the restaurant living our best life.

Jasmine: Yes. I have a really, really small friend group, but it is an amazing friend group. And when we get together for brunch or for dinner or whatever, it is always just a really good.

So, where can we go to find more about you and the amazing work that you're doing in Congress?

Rep. Underwood: You can follow me online. I'm on Twitter at @LaurenUnderwood on Instagram at @LaurenAUnderwood. You can keep up with my campaign underwoodforcongress.com. And if you want to follow the Black Maternal Health Caucus, we're on Twitter at @BMHCaucus.

Jasmine: BMHCaucus. I'm going to follow that because I need to know what's going on with that stuff. I'm so excited about all the work y'all are doing.

All right. Well, thank you again for being with us on the Suburban Women Problem.

Rep. Underwood: Thank you so much for having me.

BREAK

Rachel: Welcome back everyone. Thank you, Jasmine, for that interview. We just cannot do enough to bring awareness to the subject. And I love all the work that she's doing, you know, in Congress, because we really have to create policies if we hope to affect change. I mean, first it's awareness, and then we've got to push that onto policies because without policy changes, none of this is going to matter.

Jasmine: Absolutely. I love her. She's a rockstar and I've admired her for a really long time. So it was great getting to interview her. I love the work that she's doing. I love her tenacity. I think that she's just awesome.

So my Toast to Joy is actually I got to travel up to Maryland to see my son play football. He didn't get very many playing minutes because it was his first game playing after his injury. But I got to see my son, and I let him show me around. And then eventually we ended up at this like Korean, like hot pot restaurant where, you know, they bring the broth out to the table and it like cooks on the table. And it was just like a nice time with my son, who is just growing up so fast. So it's like, every opportunity I can see him, I love to see him because he lives in Maryland with his dad. 

But one of the things I can say about my son is that he is not as enthusiastic about taking pictures as my daughter is. So my daughter is, “Snap a picture. Mom, take my picture. Hey, let's take a picture.” Meanwhile my son, I'm like, “Can you please just look at the camera? It will take literally two seconds. I promise I won't prolong this. Just look at the camera.” And I actually got a picture of him smiling. 

And so that was exciting for me as a mom. You know, Toast to Joy for getting my 15 year old son to actually crack a smile for his mama. 

Rachel: Ah, parenting is a lesson in humility every day.

Jasmine: It definitely is!

Rachel: My Toast to Joy has to be Pfizer's announcement this morning that they are going to seek approval for the vaccine very soon, hopefully by the end of September, for all of us parents of 5 to 11 year olds, it's just great. I'm just so excited. And I love that my daughter is excited to get the vaccine because she understands the importance of it. And hasn't that been wonderful for so many of our children? I mean, mine cries every year when she has to get the flu shot, but just to… she understands very much that the freedom and the miracle that this vaccine is.

Amanda: I’m also very excited about this vaccine. It feels like, so when they first started delaying like, “Oh, it's going to be the summer. Oh, it's going to be before fall.” It felt exactly like when you're at the airport and they're like, “There's a 20 minute delay.” I was like, “No. Oh no!”

Jasmine: Yeah.

Amanda: This feels like when you've had that 20 minute delay that turned into an hour, the plane is at the gate and now you're like, “I can believe, you know, the plane is here. I see it with my eyes. I feel like I see that plate at my gate right now.”

Jasmine: Right.

Amanda: I’m not on it yet, but I'm going to be on it soon.

Jasmine: I love it because to your point, Rachel, it, it felt like it was just so drawn out. And I know sometimes when it feels like that and you don't know what's happening, it's just like, “Why is it taking so long? Why is it taking so long?” But now to see that they were really putting a lot of care and attention, not into just “is the vaccine safe,” but “what is the safest dosage that's also effective? “And so I think, I hope, that that gives some parents peace of mind that this was not rushed. Like this process, like really was something that they put a lot of thought into. And they're not just like trying to just throw this vaccine into everyone without even thinking about it.

Rachel: Yeah, absolutely.

Amanda: And comparing to the other risks that are children's hospitals here I know are filling up.

Rachel: Yeah.

Amanda: All right. So my Toast to Joy has to be… we had Veranda on the show and we just had our Mommy and Me Ball, and it was our biggest fundraiser of the year for the Pregnant Possibilities Resource Center. It was amazing. Veranda pulled off this amazing event. All the moms loved it. All the kids loved it. Our highlight was we had a guy bring in all these kinds of exotic pets in like snakes and tortoises and stuff. And, oh my gosh, every kid in there was just sitting there, riveted by this guy for like 30, 45 minutes.

I was like, “This is the best. Like watching of my kid I've ever done.” Like they're just sitting there. No one's hitting each other. No one's yelling. The kids were so excited. It was so much fun. The Mommy Ball was a blast, so that's gotta be my Toast to Joy today.

Jasmine: Alright ladies, this was fun today, and thank you so much to everyone for joining us. If you've enjoyed the podcast, please share it with someone, you know, and we'll see you again next week on another episode of the Suburban Women Problem.