- Maternal and Child Health Bureau's Approach to Maternal Health
- National Maternal Mental Health Hotline
- Maternal and Child Environmental Health Network (MCEHN)
- Women's Preventive Services Guidelines and the Well-Woman Chart
- HRSA Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program
- Health Workforce Projections Tool (including Women's Health)
HRSA improves the well-being of mothers and pregnant women before, during, and after pregnancy through quality programs and the development of a skilled workforce. Our work responds to the President's Executive Order, Establish the President's Make America Health Again Commission, and under the direction of the HHS Secretary. Our work aims to understand the root causes that stand in the way of good health and then to provide the right services at the right time that promote and support better health.
Quick facts about Maternal Health
- Pregnancy-related mortality has not improved over the past decade.1
- Pregnancy-related mortality is higher in rural counties than urban counties.1
- Thirty-five percent of all U.S. counties lack hospitals or birth centers offering obstetric care and without obstetric providers, with about 60% of these occurring in rural counties. 1
- Thousands of women experience unexpected outcomes of labor and delivery that result in significant short or long-term consequences to their health.2
- Four out of five pregnancy-related deaths are considered preventable.3
How do we promote maternal health?
- Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant
In all 59 states and jurisdictions, state departments of health determine their priorities and best approaches to improving health care services and systems for women and mothers. - Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Services (MIECHV)
Through voluntary home visiting services, uses proven methods to support pregnant women and parents with young children who live in communities that face greater risks and barriers to achieving positive maternal and child health outcomes. - Healthy Start
Through a community-based approach, improves a woman's health before, during, and after pregnancy and aims to ensure their babies are healthy and reach their first birthday. - National Maternal Mental Health Hotline
Provides 24/7, free, confidential support before, during, and after pregnancy. - Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health and Safety (AIM) and AIM Community Care (AIM CCI) Initiative
State-based teams support safe maternal care to reduce severe maternal illness and deaths in hospitals, community-based organizations, and outpatient clinical settings. - State Maternal Health Innovation Program
States collaborate with maternal health experts to address health disparities and improve outcomes, with a particular emphasis on preventing severe maternal illness and death. - Integrated Maternal Health Services
Creates and test models that integrate clinical care, behavioral health care, and social services for women who are underserved. - Workforce Training
We target investments and integrate nutrition activities into broader health programs such as the HRSA Home Visiting Program and the Title V MCH Services Block Grant. We partner with state public health agencies, universities, and community organizations to improve access to quality services. - Women's Preventive Services Guidelines (WPSI)
Develops and shares national preventive health guidelines and resources for primary care settings. - Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies Program
Increases access to maternal and obstetrics care in rural communities and ultimately improves maternal and neonatal outcomes through the establishment of networks to leverage local resources, coordinate care throughout the pregnancy, labor and delivery, and postpartum periods, use telehealth to connect to specialists, and develop models of care that are financially sustainable. - Screening and Treatment for Maternal Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders
Expands health care providers' ability to screen, assess, treat, and refer pregnant and postpartum women for depression and related disorders. - Maternity Care Nursing Workforce Expansion (MatCare)
Increases and diversifies the maternal and perinatal health nursing workforce through support for education and training in rural and underserved communities. - Primary Care Training Enhancement: Community Prevention and Maternal Health
Trains primary care physicians in maternal health care clinical services or population health in order to improve maternal health outcomes. - Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education
Supports primary care medical and dental residency programs, including obstetrics and gynecology, in outpatient settings in the community. - Loan repayment and scholarship programs
- Support providers of maternal services practicing or planning to practice in underserved areas including designating funding specifically for women's health nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, and certified obstetrics and gynecology registered nurses in the Nurse Corps program.
- Maternity Care Target Area scores help ensure maternity care health professionals receiving National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Loan Repayment Program awards serve the communities where the need is the greatest. The NHSC Students to Service Loan Repayment Program offers a supplemental award to applicants who commit to completing an OB-GYN specialty and serving in a MCTA after residency or graduation.
Health Center Program
Health Centers provide primary medical, dental, mental health, substance use disorder, and patient support services to more than seven million women aged 15 to 44 years nationwide.At Health Centers:
- The number of obstetricians, gynecologists, and certified nurse midwives has grown by more than 6% in the past three years.
- In 2023, more than 585,000 women received prenatal care. 71% of these women began receiving care during the first trimester.
- In 2023, providers performed more than 172,000 deliveries.
- Maternal Health Quality Improvement Fund
Thirty-five HRSA-funded health centers are developing patient-centered models of care delivery to improve maternal health outcomes, reduce disparities, and address the clinical and health-related social needs of their patients at the highest risk of maternal morbidity and mortality.
- Trends in Severe Maternal Morbidity in the US Across the Transition to ICD-10-CM/PCS From 2012-2019
- Associations Between State-Level Severe Maternal Morbidity and Other Perinatal Indicators
- Contribution of maternal age and pregnancy checkbox on maternal mortality ratios in the United States, 1978-2012
- Improved ascertainment of pregnancy-associated suicides and homicides in North Carolina
- A new performance measurement system for maternal and child health in the United States
- Rural Hospital Administrators' Beliefs About Safety, Financial Viability, and Community Need for Offering Obstetric Care
- State and Regional Differences in Access to Hospital-Based Obstetric Services for Rural Residents, 2018
- Making it Work: Models of Success in Rural Maternity Care
- Maternal Health Research Collaborative for Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs)
- For more research on rural maternal health visit: https://www.ruralhealthresearch.org/topics/maternal-health
- Discretionary Grants Information System
Data on specific programs or performance measures. - Title V Information System (TVIS)
Includes performance data from federal sources (Federally Available Resource Document) that can be used to compare states or to look at various demographic factors in order to identify, monitor, and address gaps in health outcomes. - Healthy Start Benchmarks (PDF)
Include several measures to monitor a mother's health. - Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Performance Indicators and Systems Outcomes (PDF - 142 KB)
Captures two main types of data that help us understand the outcomes of home visiting services. - Women's Health Workforce Projections Report
- Health Workforce Projections Tool
HRSA and HHS-supported resources
Date Last Reviewed: