As a midwife in Pittsburgh's Jewish community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, my great-great-grandmother Hannah Sandusky brought many healthy children into the world despite the high maternal and infant mortality rates of the time.

I can't help but wonder what "Bubbe" Hannah, as she was known to all, would make of the fact that today, some 150 years later, the United States ranks 42nd globally in maternal mortality rates, the highest among industrialized countries. Maternal mortality is a key indicator of health worldwide and reflects the ability of women to secure health-care services in general, not just pregnancy-related care.

What Bubbe Hannah no doubt knew in 1909 surely remains true in 2009: Healthy women have healthy babies.

The pending reform of the American health-care system recognizes this simple equation and would create for the first time a seamless, lifelong continuum of care for women.

Women no longer would be charged up to 45 percent more than men for identical health-insurance coverage, and maternity and reproductive health would be part of a basic care package.

That's good news for the more than 62 million American women now in their reproductive years. The average woman wants two children, so she will spend five years of her life trying to become pregnant, being pregnant and recovering from pregnancy, and three decades trying to avoid pregnancy.

That means pregnancy-related care alone is not enough. Health education, prenatal care, family planning and medical care should all be integrated to help women attain good health in their youth, maintain it through their reproductive years and age well. These factors are so critical to the health of America that the deans of 39 of America's 50 schools of public health have endorsed a scientific, data-driven report urging that women's health needs be treated as a top priority.

According to the report, "The evidence shows that reproductive health care is essential to women's health. If national health reform is to fulfill the goal of correcting our fragmented health system to improve America's health, it must address the specific health needs of women."

As these experts understand, taking care of women really means taking care of everyone, because women make most of the decisions about health care for their children and often for their spouses and parents, as well.

In a recent speech at the White House, first lady Michelle Obama affirmed this fact, noting that eight in 10 mothers report they are the ones responsible for choosing their children's doctors and that more than 10 percent of women in this country are caring for a sick or elderly relative.

"Being part of the sandwich generation, raising kids while caring for sick or elderly parents, that's just not a work-family balance issue anymore ... it is a health-care issue," Mrs. Obama said. "If we want to ensure women have opportunities that they deserve, if we want women to be able to care for their families and pursue things they could never imagine, then we have to reform the system."

The first lady is right. By ensuring coverage of preventive care and basic health services such as maternity benefits, the proposed reforms would create a system that provides not just "sick care" but true health care for women -- and ultimately for all citizens of our nation.

Bubbe Hannah may not be here to see it, but the many descendants of the children she brought into the world certainly would benefit from this momentous change. And the many generations of children to come would grow up knowing that this country considers health care a basic human right, not a privilege.

Cartoonist Rob Rogers does "Rob's Rough," an early look at his work and his creative process, exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.