Maternal and Child Health

Arkansas has the highest maternal mortality rate in the United States — a country that already lags behind other developed countries in maternal health outcomes — and faces additional challenges as one of the most rural and impoverished states in the nation. More than 60% of the counties in Arkansas have limited maternity care and nearly half have no maternity care at all.

Limited access to essential resources and quality health care before, during and after pregnancy creates serious health risks for mothers and children. In fact, 9 out of 10 maternal deaths in Arkansas are preventable with timely access to quality maternal care.

Our initiatives to address the maternal and child health crisis in the state will help lay the foundation for a healthier and more prosperous future for Arkansas families.

Community-Based Solutions

We are bringing innovative maternal care solutions directly to communities to increase access to care throughout the state through initiatives like the following:

• Prenatal Care: We bring high-quality individual and group prenatal care to the maternal health deserts of Arkansas to improve the health outcomes of women, babies and families.
• Doula Expansion: We partner with organizations like Ujima Maternity Network to train and deploy doulas across the state. Doula support has been shown to improve maternal health outcomes, so expanding the doula workforce in Arkansas will play an important role in addressing maternal health disparities throughout the state.
• Mobile Reproductive Health: Our Mobile Health Units are equipped to provide women with essential health services and education regarding reproductive health and are staffed by trained community health workers, nurses and medical providers who can assist women in getting the care that’s right for them.
• 24/7 Parenting Education: This program encourages parents to reflect on their upbringing and learn important behaviors and skills that will help them be the best parents they can be.
• Specialized Community Health Workers: We lead Arkansas’ only Healthy Start program, which engages patients to promote early prenatal care, provides clinical navigation and case management, and helps patients adhere to care plans. Community health workers provide pregnant women and families with education, resources and support through home, hospital, or other community services. We also partner with clinical sites to train community health workers on patient advocacy for improving pediatric care.
• Maternal Nutrition Programs: We are identifying innovative ways to increase access to healthy foods during pregnancy through interventions like Delivering HOPE, which includes nutritional counseling, case management and grocery deliveries.

Clinical Solutions

We are building capacity within existing clinical networks to deliver high-quality care to Arkansas families.

• Arkansas Perinatal Quality Collaborative: In partnership with the Arkansas Department of Health, we’ve brought together every birthing hospital in the state to form the Arkansas Perinatal Quality Collaborative (ARPQC), which equips health providers at participating hospitals with education and resources to promote high-quality maternity care.
• Telehealth: We are addressing gaps in postpartum care through our trial of the Telehealth MOM postpartum care model, which includes telehealth visits and remote patient monitoring in the weeks immediately following birth in addition to the standard comprehensive postpartum visit. Our hope is that this model becomes a standard of care across the United States and reimbursable through health coverage plans.