Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America pledges $100M to reduce U.S. maternal mortality

Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America, a bipartisan campaign founded by philanthropists Olivia and Tom Walton, has announced a $100 million pledge to reduce the United States maternal mortality rate by half by 2031.

The initiative arrives as the U.S. maintains one of the highest maternal mortality rates among wealthy nations. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 688 people died during or shortly after pregnancy in 2024, bringing the rate to 19 deaths per 100,000 live births.

A primary focus of the five-year commitment is improving data collection and hospital reporting. Olivia Walton noted that current state-level data often lags behind, stating, “You can’t fix what you can’t measure.” To address this, the nonprofit Heartland Forward has partnered with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Perinatal Improvement Collaborative to gather health outcome data from 220 hospitals.

Dr. Neel Shah, President of Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America, described the issue as “eminently solvable,” suggesting that the challenge lies in the execution of existing medical knowledge rather than a lack of it.