Maternal Health Awareness Day 2025: What Healthcare Leaders Should Be Watching

Maternal Health Awareness Day 2025 Graphic | The Healthcare Executive

Jan22

Posted by Greg Wahlstrom, MBA, HCM
Posted in Health Observance Calendar

How Hospital Strategy, Care Equity, and Preventive Leadership Begin Before Birth

Every January 23, Maternal Health Awareness Day brings renewed focus to the state of perinatal care in the United States. For healthcare executives, this observance is more than a symbolic date—it’s a diagnostic moment for evaluating care equity, strategy alignment, and leadership visibility in maternal outcomes. With maternal mortality rates continuing to rise in the U.S., particularly among Black and Indigenous women, executives must treat this day as a catalyst for lasting, systemic improvement. Thus, awareness must translate into institutional action.

Maternal health is a litmus test for care quality, especially in underserved communities. According to the CDC, over 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. At Northwell Health in New York, leadership has implemented systemwide maternal early warning protocols, using real-time monitoring to escalate care before complications arise. Such initiatives don’t merely protect mothers—they signal the presence of responsive, learning-centered healthcare environments. Therefore, strategy begins with measurable prevention.

Hospital systems must also examine their physical and digital infrastructures to ensure maternal care is fully integrated across departments. At Kaiser Permanente, multidisciplinary maternity pathways now include behavioral health screenings, lactation support, and digital follow-up tools. CEOs and COOs must ask whether their systems offer truly comprehensive maternal journeys or fragmented experiences prone to gaps. With value-based care expanding, maternal outcomes will become a reputational and financial imperative. Accordingly, leaders should act decisively now.

Staff education remains a key lever. At Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, a simulation-based maternal health training program reduced adverse birth outcomes by 20% in high-risk cases. CNOs and CMOs should evaluate if frontline staff are receiving updated, bias-aware education tailored to modern maternal risk profiles. Moreover, diversity in staffing—especially among doulas and nurses—can improve trust and reduce racial disparities in outcomes. In other words, strategy must meet empathy in clinical environments.

From a workforce wellness standpoint, maternal health policies reflect the values of an institution. Do hospitals offer equitable parental leave for clinical staff? Are maternal mental health resources available to employees? Atrium Health has introduced peer support groups and perinatal mood screening tools for pregnant employees, setting a leadership precedent. Executives must treat internal maternal wellness as a component of workforce retention and culture strength. Without it, morale erodes quietly.

Digital innovation also plays a growing role in maternal care. AI-enabled monitoring tools, such as those developed by Sera Prognostics, can identify risks like preeclampsia earlier in pregnancy. At Mount Sinai Health System, remote monitoring kits for high-risk pregnancies are now part of the standard care plan, increasing patient confidence and reducing unnecessary hospital visits. Tech-forward CEOs should support pilots that bring maternal care into the home—and eliminate systemic friction. Consequently, this is no time for analog thinking.

Geography remains a glaring barrier to maternal care. Rural hospitals have been closing maternity wards at alarming rates, creating care deserts. In response, UChicago Medicine launched mobile prenatal clinics to reach expectant mothers in care-scarce zip codes. Strategic partnerships with community organizations are no longer optional—they are essential. For every maternal death avoided, there’s likely a story of access restored. Leadership must drive these stories forward.

Hospital boards must also be part of the maternal health conversation. Data from the Leapfrog Group shows that organizations with maternal safety as a board-level priority achieve higher quality scores. CEOs should schedule maternal outcome reviews as part of their quarterly dashboards. At Baptist Health in Florida, board-level action has led to significant reductions in cesarean overuse and better VBAC outcomes. Governance starts at the bedside, after all.

From a branding and trust-building perspective, Maternal Health Awareness Day offers a critical communications opportunity. Public messaging on safety, inclusion, and community partnerships can reinforce brand credibility—if authentically tied to operations. Hennepin Healthcare’s social media campaign in 2024, focused on “Every Mother, Every Moment,” generated over 2 million impressions. But the message only landed because their service redesigns were already in motion. For this reason, marketing must follow mission.

Leaders should not treat Maternal Health Awareness Day as a calendar checkbox. Instead, use this moment to recommit to metrics that matter—racial equity, staff education, early risk detection, and continuum of care. As 2025 unfolds, maternal health must remain a year-round strategic lens. Hospital leaders don’t just shape birth outcomes; they shape generational health futures. That responsibility begins now.

If your leadership team is aligning hospital operations with equity, wellness, and long-term population outcomes, make sure maternal health is part of your Q1 strategy. We’ve outlined other executive imperatives in the post below.

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If your organization is committed to advancing maternal health equity, expanding preventive access, and strengthening leadership accountability, we recommend exploring additional strategies to support the clinical workforce.