Maternal Health Awareness Day
Maternal health is the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. For many women, motherhood is a rewarding experience. For others, it is a time of ill health and sometimes even death. Direct causes of maternal morbidity and mortality include hemorrhage, infection, high blood pressure, and obstructed labor. Many of these deaths can be avoided, as medical interventions are well-known. Access to medical care before, during, and after childbirth is essential to the health and well-being of each mother.
Today, with patients in many states having lost their reproductive freedoms and care deserts expanding and touching more communities, it’s more critical now than ever that we stay committed to efforts to improve maternal health outcomes.
In 2016, the New Jersey Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) joined the Tara Hansen Foundation; the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the New Jersey Medical School; the New Jersey Obstetrical & Gynecological Society; the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses; and the New Jersey Affiliate of the American College of Nurse-Midwives to request the establishment of a Maternal Health Awareness Day in New Jersey to raise all New Jersey residents’ awareness of maternal health issues. This effort came to legislative fruition in 2017 with the first Maternal Health Awareness Day celebration in New Jersey. Since 2021, ACOG has celebrated Maternal Health Awareness Day at a national level on January 23, joined by partners from across the United States. Learn more here.