Between October 18–21, this website will move to a new web address (from health.gov to odphp.health.gov). During that time, some functions might not work as expected. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we’re working to make this transition as smooth as possible.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Improve Maternal Health

About this resource:

HHS Non-systematic Review

Source: Office of the Surgeon General

Last Reviewed: December 2020

Workgroups: Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Workgroup

This Call to Action seeks to engage individuals, organizations, and communities in acting to improve women’s health before, during, and after pregnancy. It highlights strategies to address: 

  • Maternal death rates
  • Severe rates of disease among mothers 
  • Disparities in outcomes for different groups of mothers, along with contributing factors
Read more about this resource

Objectives related to this resource (4)

Reduce maternal deaths — MICH‑04
LHI label
Getting worse
Reduce severe maternal complications identified during delivery hospitalizations — MICH‑05
Getting worse
Reduce cesarean births among low-risk women with no prior births — MICH‑06
Getting worse
Increase the proportion of pregnant women who receive early and adequate prenatal care — MICH‑08
Getting worse

Suggested Citation

1.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Surgeon General. (2020). The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Improve Maternal Health. Retrieved from https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/call-to-action-maternal-health.pdf [PDF - 15.4 MB]