For Mother’s Day, let’s ask KY moms what they really want. Hint: it’s not $5,000. | Opinion

News about the White House proposal to give women a $5000 “baby bonus” spread rapidly across my social media platforms, with plenty of opinions in the re-posts and the comments. Admittedly, when I first read the idea, I didn’t have a strong reaction. As a mother of four, I jokingly said, “I hope they give me back pay,” then thought about what $5000 would do for me. Well, it would cover about 3.5 months of infant care or about 100 boxes of Pampers, “better than nothing,” I thought to myself.

But then I really started to think, “What do women want?”

I considered the new moms I meet with weekly in a postpartum support group I co-facilitate here, in Kentucky. I reflected on all that we have discussed in the last three years, the needs, the wants, the silly and serious topics we’ve discussed, and I don’t remember $,being mentioned in any of those.

So, what do they want? Of the 100 or so women who have joined this group, it always comes back to support. They want support. Support from individuals, whether it be a helping hand at the store or the patience of strangers when she is soothing a crying baby in public, some help with dishes and getting rest, they want community, or a village, as it’s often referred to. But not a village that is pay-to-play.

They want support from policymakers and other decision makers, such as paid maternity leave, so they can focus on bonding with their babies and developing strong attachments, essential for positive maternal and infant outcomes. They want breastfeeding support and access to mental health care, daycare subsidies, and universal pre-k. They want to be free of the fear of gun violence in their communities, schools, places of worship, movie theaters, malls, and they want a community that supports their children’s well-being. They want to see policies that reduce the maternal and infant mortality rates in the US, rather than the added fear that a pregnancy may kill them.

In Kentucky, these wants are especially urgent. Kentucky has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. Mothers lack adequate time to recover from childbirth and bond with their child. There are not enough mental health providers to meet the needs of Kentuckians, let alone specialized maternal mental health providers. Families across the states are burdened by the rising cost of limited childcare options, and for rural families, their childcare options are even more limited. All this despite evidence of how important child development is from birth to five.

If the US paid $5,000 for every baby born in the US (approximately 3.6 million), that is nearly $18 billion annually, with very little evidence that a one-time payment of $5000 would benefit families or communities in the long run. Why not invest that $18 billion to increase childcare facilities in rural communities, reinstate the child tax credit, implement a paid maternity leave system, or subsidize childcare costs for families? We already know there is so much more the government could do to improve the lives of families in the US. I hope legislators can shift this short-sighted focus from increasing birth rates to policy changes that are needed and that would improve the lives of American families.

Aubrey Jones is a maternal health researcher and assistant professor at the University of Kentucky.