WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and eight Senate colleagues reintroduced a resolution to officially designate January 23 as MaternalHealth Awareness Day. The resolution emphasizes the importance of raising public awareness about maternal health outcomes and promotes initiatives to address and eliminate its disparities. 

In 2018, New Jersey led the way by becoming the first state to acknowledge MaternalHealth Awareness Day, thanks to the tireless efforts of the Tara Hansen Foundation, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and other essential organizations dedicated to raising awareness and combating maternal mortality. Since this historic recognition, numerous state entities, advocacy groups, community organizations, and others have united on January 23 to elevate awareness surrounding maternal health. This day serves as a platform to educate healthcare providers on maternal mortality, urging birthing individuals, families, and healthcare professionals to identify and discuss potential signs of emergencies.

“The harsh reality is that the United States bears the highest maternal mortality rate among developed countries, with Black and Indigenous people disproportionately impacted,” said Senator Booker. “It is disheartening that over 80 percent of maternaldeaths in our country are preventable, further emphasizing the need to take action and guarantee equitable and comprehensive maternal care for every individual. We must urgently create and implement policies that effectively address the maternal mortality crisis and make a lasting investment in our country’s families."

“United States Senator Cory Booker continues to be a major champion for improving maternal health care by sponsoring a resolution submitted to the US Senate which designates January 23, 2024 as a national ‘Maternal Health Awareness Day,’” said Joseph J. Apuzzio, Director of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. “Senator Booker's efforts go a long way in raising public and legislative awareness about maternal morbidity, mortality, and disparities in order to reduce adverse outcomes and improve maternal care.”

"In 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called injustice in health “the most shocking and the most inhuman” of all forms of inequality,” said Heidi Murkoff, author of What to Expect When You’re Expecting and Founder of the What to Expect Project. “It was and sadly, it still is, especially when it comes to maternal health, the foundation of all health. That foundation — fundamental to a healthy future — continues to crumble, allowing too many moms in the U.S., especially Black, AI/AN and rural moms, to fall through the cracks of care, far too many to receive inequitable care that is neither respectful nor responsive. That doesn’t see or hear them. As the wealthiest nation in the world, the U.S. should also be the safest place in the world to be pregnant and have a baby, but we are consistently the least safe among developed countries. It’s time to make maternal health the national priority it should be for all moms and the babies they love. That’s why this January 23rd, the WTEP and I are proud to support Maternal Health Awareness Day and honored to work beside Senator Booker and other maternal health champions —and in the spirit of Dr. King’s legacy -- in this vital call for both awareness and action. So that we can finally end our nation’s epidemic of preventable maternal deaths and injuries and deliver a healthy beginning and healthy future to every mom, everywhere."

Senator Booker’s resolution notes that more than 50,000 individuals in the United States suffer from potentially life threatening complications that arise from labor and childbirth, and recognizes community-based maternal health models that have been proven to improve the health of birthing people throughout the country. With one-third of maternal mortality cases occurring between one week and one year postpartum, expanding access to health care after delivery nationwide is a vital step to saving the lives of birthing people.

The resolution is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Laphonza Butler (D-CA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Peter Welch (D-VT).


The full text of the resolution can be found here.