By Julia DeLuca, SWHR Communications Intern
While many women plan their pregnancies, 42% of pregnancies in the United States are unplanned. Whether you plan your pregnancy or not, by taking active steps early, there are ways you can prepare to have a healthy maternal health journey.
Decades of excluding women, especially pregnant and lactating women, from clinical research have led to substantial gaps in understanding the treatment and care needed to promote maternal health. Approximately 700 women die each year in the United States because of pregnancy or delivery complications, and more than 50,000 women survive pregnancy and delivery but are left with significant adverse health consequences.
To support women and their providers with strategies to improve maternal health, the Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) published the Journey to Motherhood: A Patient Empowerment Guide. The guide features information about the three major phases of the motherhood journey—pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and postpartum. The guide includes:
- How to work with health care providers throughout pregnancy (including pre-pregnancy counseling, prenatal appointments, questions to ask providers, and care providers after birth)
- Tips for meeting nutritional needs during pregnancy
- A summary of changes to the body to expect during pregnancy, both physically and mentally
- Recommendations for creating a healthy environment and building a strong support community
- A postpartum journey worksheet
Planning for each unique phase of the motherhood journey can be intimidating, but taking it one step at a time and connecting with others who have been through a similar experience can help reduce the burden. SWHR is also creating a social media toolkit to accompany the guide: Journey to Motherhood: A Social Media Toolkit aims to encourage women and their support communities to share information about the healthy decisions you can take at each step of the motherhood journey.
Insights for the guide and social media toolkit were collected from meetings from an interdisciplinary Maternal Health Working Group hosted by SWHR earlier this year. Health care providers, researchers, patient advocates, and health care policy leaders discussed maternal health disparities with an emphasis on empowering pregnant women in their care. Additional takeaways from the meeting can be found here.
SWHR’s Maternal Health Program aims to address gaps in health care coverage and access for women to improve maternal and infant health and reduce pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality. Engaging diverse stakeholders in maternal health, SWHR is committed to exploring strategies to address knowledge gaps, disease disparities, and relevant policies that present barriers to equitable and quality care for women throughout their pregnancy journey. Healthy mothers help create healthy babies, foster healthy families, and influence healthy communities. Maternal health is integral to lifelong women’s health.
Check out our Maternal & Infant Health Disparities focus page to learn more.