Maternal Health Awareness Day: An Opportunity for Education and Action

January 23, 2025

Today is Maternal Health Awareness Day, a designation created to raise awareness about maternal health and the country’s maternal mortality crisis. The day is used to educate health care providers about maternal mortality and encourage birthing people, families, and providers to recognize and discuss potential signs of an emergency.

Recently, HAP released an action plan to improve maternal health outcomes, increase access to care, and eliminate disparities across Pennsylvania.

The report, developed by HAP’s Task Force on Maternal and Child Health, provides recommendations for what Pennsylvania hospitals and policymakers can do to advance high quality and equitable care, expand access, and strengthen and diversify the maternal health workforce.

“Our hospitals are committed to improving quality within their four walls consistently, but we wanted to really widen that and look at other opportunities to address some of the challenges and factors that are impacting maternal health,” HAP President and CEO Nicole Stallings said in an interview with WGAL last week. “That’s where policymakers come in.”

Here’s what to know:

• Concerning Trends:  Although rates of in-hospital maternal mortality have decreased in recent years, rates of severe maternal morbidity (SMM) continue to increase and there are significant racial disparities in outcomes. The SMM rate in Pennsylvania increased 40 percent from 2016–2022 and the SMM rate for Black patients increased almost 1.5 times more than the rate for white patients.
• Areas of Concern:  The Pennsylvania Maternal Mortality Review Committee found that more than 60 percent of pregnancy-associated deaths in the commonwealth during 2020 occurred more than 43 days after delivery. The committee identified mental health, including substance use disorder, as the leading cause.
• Hospitals’ Commitment:  These trends underscore the importance of hospitals’ focus on addressing factors outside their walls, in addition to continuously improving the care they provide. HAP’s report highlights the ways hospitals are implementing proven strategies—such as remote patient monitoring and home visiting—to improve outcomes for high-risk patients and reduce disparities; helping pregnant and postpartum patients access behavioral health care and substance use disorder treatment; and expanding and diversifying maternal care teams to improve quality, reduce disparities, and help patients better navigate care.
• Quotable: “Addressing these challenges requires strong collaboration with a focus, not only on improving safe and equitable hospital care, but also on strengthening care coordination, closing gaps in primary care and behavioral health services, tackling social drivers of health, strengthening connections with community partners and ensuring the long-term sustainability of accessible maternal health care throughout the commonwealth,” HAP’s task force noted.

Learn more about HAP’s work to advance maternal health quality, equity, and access online.