Improving maternal health in rural communities requires more than inadequate short term funding that the RHTP provides. This brief highlights policy recommendations to strengthen access to care through sustainable financing, workforce development, coverage stability and community-based, care delivery model.
Rural Health Transformation Program (Part 1): A Missed Opportunity for Moms & Babies
The Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) is being promoted as a major investment in rural health, but its funding level, design and priorities fall short of what rural communities need. This brief examines why the program is a missed opportunity to support rural maternal health.
OBBBA is Threatening Women’s Health Care Access
Maternal and reproductive health care was already facing severe strain, but OBBBA funding cuts have worsened the crisis. Over 65 L&D units and clinics have closed, forcing patients to travel further for care and deeply destabilizing the healthcare safety net.
Listening to Mothers IV
The Fourth National Survey of Women’s Childbearing Experiences. This report covers responses of more than 3,800 mothers who gave birth in 2023-2025.
State Momnibus Scan
Thirteen states have partially or fully passed Momnibus legislation. Two of these states brought forward new Momnibus 2.0 legislation in the 2025 state legislative session that has not advanced.
Republican’s New Health Care Law Will Impact Over 130 Rural Labor and Delivery Units
NPWF analysis finds that 144 rural hospitals with labor and delivery units across 41 states are at risk of closure or severe service cutbacks under the Republican’s proposal to cut Medicaid. This includes: thirteen hospitals in Kentucky, ten hospitals in Louisiana, three hospitals in Alaska and two hospitals in Maine, among others.
Transforming Maternal Health in Medicaid
Use this Playbook to improve maternal health through Medicaid To assist state Medicaid agencies and maternal health champions in the states participating in the Transforming Maternal Health (TMaH) initiative, we developed a playbook that provides concrete checklists,...
State Opportunities for Improving Health for Moms and Babies
The Transforming Maternal Health (TMaH) Model’s initiatives center on three main pillars: access to care, infrastructure, and workforce capacity, quality improvement and safety, and whole-person care delivery.
Including a Health Equity Plan is Integral to Achieving Whole‑Person Health
To support Medicaid programs and partners working to transform maternal health in their state, we developed the following Maternal Health Infrastructure Policy Checklist in parallel with the playbook support for all other model elements.
At Risk: Critical Medicaid Benefits for Moms
Medicaid is the largest single-payer of maternity care in the United States, financing an estimated forty percent of births and playing a critical role in addressing the current maternal mortality crisis. Critical Medicaid benefits for maternal health are on the chopping block as Congress debates Medicaid cuts that would threaten maternal and infant health in every state.
Making the Most of Medicaid’s Transforming Maternal Health (TMaH) Model
The new Transforming Maternal Health (TMaH) model is a crucial opportunity to improve outcomes for birthing people, especially those most affected by the maternal health crisis.
Black Maternal Mental Health
The mental health of Black moms is in crisis. This infographic illustrates why and what needs to happen.
State Abortion Bans Threaten Nearly 7 Million Black Women, Exacerbate the Existing Black Maternal Mortality Crisis
Analysis from the National Partnership for Women & Families and In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda reveals the harmful impact of Dobbs on Black women. We find that more than 6.7 million Black women – 57 percent of all Black women ages 15-49 – live in the 26 states that have banned or are likely to ban abortion.
Maternity Care Payment Reform
For the first time, our report assesses the actual impact of maternity care episode payment and maternity care home programs and provides recommendations for improving alternative payment models (APMs).
Fact Sheet: Black Women’s Maternal Health
The United States has become even more dangerous for Black people to give birth. Regardless of socioeconomic status, Black women and birthing individualsNOTE: We recognize and respect that pregnant, birthing, postpartum, and parenting people have a range of gender...
Black Women’s Maternal Health
The reproductive health of Black women has long been compromised by interpersonal, institutional, and structural racism. In addition to contending with social and economic drivers of poor health that undermine Black Americans, they have experienced discriminatory health care practices and abuse from slavery to the present.
Our Communities Hold the Solutions
A robust body of research has shown that this type of doula support is associated with better childbirth experiences and healthier outcomes for both parents and babies. Today, doula support is available across a variety of reproductive health experiences, including abortion, miscarriage, stillbirth, and fertility treatment, as well as in other life course settings such as pediatric care, preventive health care, critical care, and palliative or end-of-life care
Improving Our Maternity Care Now Through Doula Support
This report outlines the evidence that supports the unique value of doula support across different communities, the safety and effectiveness of doula support in improving maternal and infant outcomes, the interest of birthing women and people in use of doula support, and the current availability of, and access to, doula services in the United States.
Spotlight on Success: Tewa Women United
The community-centered Yiya Vi Kagingdi Doula Project was created in response to a survey of women in the six Tewa-speaking pueblos and as one approach to mitigate violence against women, children, and Mother Earth. The program supports birthing people and their families with about three prenatal home visits, continuous support while giving birth, about three postpartum home visits, and lactation support, as well as remote support, all within a birth equity framework.
Spotlight on Success: Open Arms Perinatal Services
Open Arms Perinatal Services is an excellent example of how community-based doulas that provide an extended range of prenatal to postpartum care can dramatically improve the health of mothers and babies.