Honoring Mothers and Advancing Maternal Health: Join the Mission on Maternal Health Awareness Day

By Dana Mayer, Manager of Maternal and Infant Clinical Initiatives, Ohio Department of Children and Youth

Maternal Health Awareness Day is observed on Thursday, January 23, 2025. This day is dedicated to honoring and remembering mothers we have lost while reaffirming our commitment to taking meaningful action to save more lives. It serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of listening to moms and families, as well as the need for collaboration across public health organizations, community agencies, as well as healthcare systems and providers to address the root causes of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity.

In Ohio, efforts are underway. The work of the Ohio Council to Advance Maternal Health (OH-CAMH) and the findings from the Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review (PAMR) committee are helping to identify solutions that improve outcomes for mothers. Maternal Health Awareness Day invites us to reflect on the progress we’ve made and challenges us to take bold steps forward in our mission to make maternal healthcare safer and more equitable.

As we approach this day, we challenge each of us to reflect, engage, and take action:

• Reflect: Acknowledge the barriers we face and the progress we’ve made in reducing maternal mortality. Use this day to reflect on the changes you’ve implemented in the work you do.

• Engage and Act: Challenge yourself to remain an active part of change for mothers. Reevaluate projects that haven’t shown improvements, bring more changemakers to the table, listen to those with lived experience, and join groups focused on improving the health of pregnant and postpartum women.

Call to Action: How You Can Get Involved?

1.     Center Moms

• Make space to ask the mothers we serve how we can improve our services to better meet their needs.

• Integrate Urgent Maternal Warning Signs and/or HEAR HER resources into your practice or share them with your community and facility.

2.     Set Aside Time to Learn

• Make time to learn more about a maternal health strategy, intervention, or research you’ve been meaning to explore.

  • Maternal Health Blueprint.

  • Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health Community Care Initiative (AIM CCI).

  • National Maternal Mental Health Hotline.

  • Maternal Mortality Reports and Articles. 

3.     Raise Awareness

• Raise awareness to Maternal Health Awareness Day by sharing the infographics below on social media.

From 2008-2018, 61% of Ohio’s Pregnancy-Related deaths were preventable. 67% of deaths occurred after pregnancy. The leading causes of death differed for Black and white women, with the leading cause of Black women being infection and the leading cause for white women being mental health conditions. Learn more at https://shorturl.at/EglJg.

The Ohio Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review (PAMR) reviews all deaths to women who are pregnant and up to one year after delivery to answer important questions to help prevent future deaths. Learn more about recommendations to prevent pregnancy-related deaths at https://shorturl.at/XbiDm.

Are you pregnant? Have you given birth within the last year? If you feel something is wrong, don't ignore it. Listen to your body, speak up, and seek help. #HearHer

• You can also leverage social media resources from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

4.     Join the Effort

• Join a Task Force or Workgroup: Help shape the future of maternal health in Ohio.

  • Ohio Council to Advance Maternal Health.

  • Ohio Perinatal Mental Health Task Force.

  • Groundwork Ohio Coalitions and Councils. 

• Engage with advocacy networks: 

  • Groundwork Ohio’s Advocacy Toolkit.

  • Center for Community Solutions Maternal & Infant Health.

  • March of Dimes Get Involved with Advocacy.

5.     Celebrate and Share Successes

• Learning from one another is a powerful resource for improving Ohio’s maternal health outcomes. Whether it’s implementing a best practice, authentic engagement with mothers, translating experience into action, or another local effort, your stories of success inspire and inform our collective efforts. Consider submitting a success story or lesson learned to OHCAMH@childrenandyouth.ohio.gov for future newsletters.

Together, we can lead efforts to improve maternal health outcomes and reduce disparities. For more information, resources, or ways to get involved, please email OHCAMH@childrenandyouth.ohio.gov.

Thank you for your dedication to advancing maternal health!