On Mother’s Day, a powerful moment of nonpartisan alignment took center stage on NBC’s Meet the Press. Olivia Walton, founder of the Heartland Forward Maternal & Child Health Center for Policy & Practice (MCH CPP), launched Healthy Moms Healthy Babies America (HMHBA), a national campaign with the ambitious goal of cutting maternal mortality in the United States in half in five years. She was joined by Governor Wes Moore of Maryland and Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas who underscored that improving maternal health is a nonpartisan issue with proven solutions that need to be scaled now.
The Meet the Press conversation reflects Heartland Forward’s belief that improving maternal and infant health outcomes is both a health and an economic priority—requiring state-level leadership, cross-sector collaboration and expanding frameworks grounded in data and community needs.
Despite the fact that the U.S. currently has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, according to the CDC more than 80% of those deaths are preventable. Poor maternal and infant health outcomes cost the U.S. economy an estimated $165.3 billion annually.
As Olivia Walton said during the segment, “Investing in maternal health is the single most strategic investment we can make in the future of American prosperity…healthy moms lead to healthy families, healthy families to healthy communities, healthy communities to healthy economies.”
Governor Moore and Governor Sanders also elevated instrumental policies they have both implemented to improve maternal health outcomes within their states.
In Maryland, Governor Moore signed the Maryland Maternal Health Act in 2024, standardizing prenatal risk assessment and postpartum referrals to help increase access to care for high-risk mothers. As Governor Moore highlighted on Meet the Press, poverty is a significant contributor to worse maternal outcomes. As such, Maryland implemented the ENOUGH Initiative, which is the nation’s first state-led, place-based anti-poverty program to help improve maternal and “whole family” outcomes by targeting resources to communities in greatest need.
By comparison, in Arkansas, Governor Sanders signed the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act of 2024, which introduced presumptive eligibility for immediate prenatal Medicaid coverage for expectant mothers—ensuring access to care is available throughout pregnancy. Other initiatives, such as the federally supported Arkansas Center for Women and Infants Health’s Proactive Postpartum Call Center, aims to reach every new mother in the state within 5 to ten days after birth—ensuring that resources are provided and care can be streamlined statewide to those in need.
Heartland Forward Is Prepared to Lead
Through Heartland Forward’s Maternal & Child Health Center for Policy & Practice (MCH CPP), Heartland Forward is leading a coordinated state-level response–-turning research, policy analysis and regional partnerships into actionable solutions. The organization’s approach supports states to implement proven policies and build the workforce infrastructure needed to improve outcomes long term.
The MCH CPP focuses on scaling proven, state-led solutions tailored to the unique needs of communities across the country. Drawing from the National Governors Association’s maternal health playbook, three core areas of action emerge as primary levers for changing maternal health outcomes:
- Improving Prenatal Care by expanding access to early diagnostics, screenings and preventative care.
- Strengthening Postpartum Care to ensure mothers continue receiving coordinated support after birth when risk is the highest.
- Making Maternal Health Good Business by engaging employers and policymakers around the economic importance of maternal wellness and aligning interest behind outcomes.
Heartland Forward convenes cross-sector leaders to advance practical, state-level solutions. One example is the Heartland Health Caucus, which convenes nonpartisan state leaders to identify scalable, evidence-based policy solutions that improve outcomes for families and communities across the region.
The Caucus provides a platform where states can learn from one another in real time—whether it is passing legislation to strengthen the role of community health workers, expanding access to care or identifying new ways to support and grow the health care workforce. When one state makes progress, others can build on it rather than starting from scratch. This collaborative model is central to Heartland Forward’s approach: identifying what works, scaling it across states and building the partnerships necessary to sustain long-term health outcomes.
That same philosophy also shapes Heartland Forward’s workforce development efforts, where the organization has demonstrated how regional partnerships can directly strengthen health care delivery systems.
Through its Nursing Pathways Program, Heartland Forward is working with education institutions, employers and state leaders in Missouri to expand nursing talent pipelines and address workforce shortages that disproportionately impact rural and under-resourced communities in the heartland. Strengthening the health care workforce is essential to improving maternal outcomes, particularly in areas where provider shortages and hospital closures limit access to prenatal and postpartum care. The program reflects Heartland Forward’s broader strategy of strengthening health outcomes by investing in the workforce systems communities depend on.
There is additional opportunity for further investment in maternal care and health outcomes with the rollout of the Rural Health Transformation Program, which will provide $50 billion in funds across states to improve access to care as well as care delivery over the coming five years. These dollars can be leveraged alongside community partners to scale proven solutions to improve outcomes in the parts of the heartland where they are most needed.
Healthy moms and healthy babies are the foundation of strong families, a strong economy and a more competitive future. The work of the Maternal & Child Health Center for Policy & Practice, the launch of Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America national campaign and the many other policymakers and maternal health leaders working on this issue, signals a growing recognition that investing in maternal health is one of the most important investments that can be made in the nation’s workforce, communities and long-term prosperity. Now, the challenge—and opportunity—is to turn proven solutions into coordinated action at scale.
Watch the full Meet the Press segment on NBC News.