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. 2024 Mar 1;143(3):e78-e85.
doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000005488. Epub 2023 Dec 21.

Maternal Mortality: A National Institutes of Health Pathways to Prevention Panel Report

Karina W Davidson  1 , Mary Beth Terry, Paula Braveman, Pamela J Reis, Stefan Timmermans, John W Epling Jr
Affiliations

Maternal Mortality: A National Institutes of Health Pathways to Prevention Panel Report

Karina W Davidson et al. Obstet Gynecol. .

Abstract

The National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Pathways to Prevention panel on postpartum health provides a consensus statement on the evidence, research gaps, and future priorities to prevent maternal morbidity and mortality. The panel reviewed an NIH-commissioned evidence review and workshop that included epidemiologic studies, demonstration interventions, and other maternal morbidity and mortality research to create these national recommendations. The panel concludes that a maternal morbidity and mortality crisis reflects a systemic failure of current U.S. health care, research efforts, and social policies. The panel recommends improving maternal health through a "maternal morbidity and mortality prevention moonshot" that adopts a comprehensive, multilevel life course conceptual framework; strengthens the research methods used within the science of maternal health; establishes and conducts national prevention, treatment, and policy interventions; and reimburses evidence-informed clinical approaches to improve maternal health across the life course. Without a national focus on fundamentally transformative interventions and other initiatives aimed at redressing structural racism and inequities in health care, current interventions and clinical advances in maternal morbidity and mortality prevention will remain tragically insufficient.

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Conflict of interest statement

Financial Disclosure The authors did not report any potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.. Maternal mortality rates in the United States, Canada, and all high-income countries. Data from 2021 provisional.,–
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.. Maternal mortality (A), Paid Family Leave (PFL) laws (B), and Medicaid expansion by state (C).–
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.. Example of one multilevel life course conceptual framework from ecologic systems theory. Adapted with permission from Noursi S, Saluja B, Richey L. Using the ecological systems theory to understand Black/White disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities 2021;8:661–9. doi: 10.1007/s40615-020-00825-4
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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