FILE-A pregnant woman walks outside the State Department in Washington, D.C. (Photo credit should read TIM SLOAN/AFP via Getty Images)
A new $100 million campaign aims to make giving birth in the United States safer.
Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America, a bipartisan campaign founded by philanthropists Olivia and Tom Walton, announced the pledge on Thursday.
RELATED: Maternal mortality rate in U.S. declines, but racial disparities remain: CDC data
The Associated Press reported that this five-year commitment is designed to lower the maternal mortality rate in the United States by half by 2031.
Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America plans to fund these care improvements by focusing on states. The $100 million commitment will be used to encourage state governments to match the nonprofit’s investment.
United States high mortality rates
Dig deeper:
The Associated Press obtained recent data that shows the United States has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among wealthy nations.
Citing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials, the AP noted that 688 people died in 2024 during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth. The maternal mortality rate increased to 19 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2024.
The most recent state-level data on maternal mortality is still from 2022, with annual totals based on provisional data available through 2024.
RELATED: US infant mortality rate rose to 3% in 2022, largest increase in 2 decades, CDC says
Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America President Dr. Neel Shah told the AP that the new initiative will focus on developing access to maternal health in rural areas, training midwives and enhancing postpartum care, and assisting states to plans that have been effective.
According to the AP, Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America is also supporting bipartisan Congressional legislation, like the Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act and the NIH IMPROVE Act, which would extend access to maternal care.
What they're saying:
"For millions of moms in America, maternal health is bad and getting worse," Olivia Walton told the AP in an interview. "There’s just so much bipartisan consensus around wanting to fix this. I really think the political will is there and part of our job is to help surface that with an information campaign."
The Source: Information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, which cites comments from one of the philanthropists that founded the campaign, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials, and recent data on mortality rates in the United States. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.