Ashley Wiley, a Clinical Assistant Professor of Nursing at Randolph-Macon College, has been appointed to the Maternal Health Data Task Force by Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. Wiley, who works as a women’s health nurse practitioner as well as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, was selected due to her expertise on the mental health aspect of prenatal and maternal care. The task force seeks to improve research methods and gather data surrounding pregnant and postpartum women.

There is a particular effort to address “maternal health deserts” in rural parts of the state where maternal care is difficult to come by. Women in these areas are the most vulnerable to prenatal complications, and consequently are at a higher risk of pregnancy-related death. 

“We are looking at how to improve data collection, what we do with the information, and how to improve overall outcomes in Virginia, specifically looking at maternal mortality rate,” says Wiley. “Governor Younkin is hoping to set up prenatal hubs in rural areas where they can provide access to care.”

The task force will be working to gather data more effectively by utilizing hospital records and collaborating with insurance companies who offer holistic overviews of patient history. Due to ethical and safety concerns for both the woman and the fetus, modern research around pregnancy is limited to retrospective studies and self-reporting from postpartum women. Records of action taken during pregnancy can be analyzed and used for pattern/outcome recognition. 

Wiley’s experience with both her own practice and the Department of Nursing at RMC make her a valuable contributor to improve women’s health resources. During the pandemic, the inability to visit doctors offices in person meant that medically untrained women were having to self-evaluate and report to their care provider virtually. 

“With virtual visits, I’d have to rely on fetal movement and mothers’ instincts,” Wiley recalls. “‘Is your baby still moving? Has anything changed?’ I wasn’t able to physically listen to a heartbeat or measure a patient’s belly to make sure their baby was growing appropriately.” 

The effectiveness of virtual mental-health check-ins, however, was made clear in Wiley’s practice. She stresses the importance of knowing how to identify symptoms of postpartum depression and other conditions, and seeks to advocate for the crucial, yet often overlooked, mental health concerns that come with pregnancy. 

“A lot of people think pregnancy is just this happy, wonderful time, and honestly, it’s terrifying all of the things that can happen,” Wiley said. “People think once the baby is here, everything’s fine. But a lot of pregnancy-related deaths are occurring in the postpartum period, where people are not aware of the signs to look for, for various events that could occur.”

Wiley is also at the forefront of promoting education around women’s health. The Department of Nursing at Randolph-Macon College offers a class which focuses exclusively on women’s health and childbearing families. This curriculum is meant to educate future healthcare workers on an otherwise understudied topic. Students under Wiley’s tutelage are taught that the care they provide must be paired with concern for the mothers’ mental wellbeing as well as physical. The more education that is offered around the entirety of women’s health, the less women are left to rely on information they hear through the grapevine.

“Education and access within communities are big pieces,” says Wiley. “If your mom or grandma doesn’t know what to look out for, you’re probably not going to know either, because often during pregnancy, you’re turning to people in your family and your community as resources.”

The aim of Governor Youngkin’s task force is to address these dangers facing pregnant and postpartum women. Collecting new data is the first step of many to ensuring that women are given a greater chance of surviving their pregnancy. The Task Force will issue a final report to the Governor and the General Assembly by December 1, 2025.