Maternal Health Awareness Day is January 23, 2025.

American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG)

The 2025 ACOG Maternal Health Awareness Day theme is “Know What’s at Stake“.

Year after year, government data have shown that the maternal mortality rate in the United States remains unacceptably high, with Black and American Indian or Alaska Native pregnant and postpartum people disproportionately experiencing health inequities. The vast majority—roughly 80%—of maternal deaths are considered preventable, and nearly half of maternal deaths occur between seven and 365 days postpartum, not during delivery itself. But all of the resounding data about maternal deaths cannot capture the true scope and scale of those losses: the anguish felt by families who lose loved ones, the trauma endured by those with severe maternal complications, the tragedy of those unable to access needed abortion care, the emotional and financial cost of those recovering from severe maternal morbidity, the communities that are living with increasingly depleted health care resources, and the clinicians whose ethical obligations to their patients are compromised daily.

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.

On Maternal Health Awareness Day, ACOG will host a live webinar to help attendees better understand all that is at stake for individuals and communities when it comes to maternal health. In this webinar, ob-gyns will share stories about the people affected by challenges accessing maternal health and reproductive health care—including themselves.

The webinar will also feature a didactic lecture from Rachel R. Hardeman, PhD, MPH, a nationally recognized expert on the intersection of maternal and reproductive health and racism as a driver of health inequity. Dr. Hardeman is a tenured professor in the division of health policy and management at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, the Blue Cross endowed professor in health and racial equity, and the founding director of the Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity. A racial health equity researcher, she studies a critical and complex determinant of health inequity: racism. Her work contributes to a body of knowledge that links structural racism to health in tangible ways; identifies opportunities for intervention; and dismantles the systems, structures, and institutions that allow inequities to persist. 

The webinar will take place on January 23 at 1 p.m. ET. Register today.