INDIANAPOLIS, Ind – New moms in areas with Indiana’s worst infant death rates will get personalized attention from health care workers under a bill on its way to Governor Holcomb.

Holcomb requested the bill, which pairs new moms with health-care workers to guide them through every stage of proper prenatal care, in the 13 zip codes with the most babies who don’t survive to their first birthday. Those slivers of Indianapolis, Evansville, Muncie, Fort Wayne, East Chicago and Hammond account for one of every seven infant deaths in the state.

Indiana’s infant death rate has kept rising as the national rate has fallen. Holcomb has set a goal of moving Indiana’s mortality rate from the worst in the Midwest to the best.

The bill also requires all health providers to ask pregnant women if they’ve used drugs, and give them treatment options if they have.

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