Women's and Maternal Health

Birth attendants can positively affect outcomes for mothers and infants. But access to them is often out of reach for low-income and minority women, who have the highest rates of infant and maternal mortality.

It's those first 1,000 days — from conception until a child's second birthday — that the brain most needs the right mix of nutrients to fully form. But programs that focus on such developmental goals are now at risk.

One writer shares her story of how the health care system missed repeated warning signs of preeclampsia while giving birth to her daughter. She later found her medical record was rife with mistakes and omissions.

California has been particuarly aggressive in its data-driven effort to curb high C-section rates at hospitals throughout the state. The results from early pilot projects have been promising.

During last night's Jimmy Kimmel Live! the late night host told the emotional story of his newborn son Billy, linking the story to the current debate on pre-existing conditions in Congress.

Martha Escudero draws on her own experience of severe depression and grinding poverty as she makes home visits to at-risk mothers in East Los Angeles, offering what help she can.

Conservatives have long taken issue with Obamacare’s requirement that plans cover maternity care, and now they're in a position to do something about it.

In the past 30 years, Indianapolis' infant mortality rate has decreased by more than a third. But Indiana still has the second-highest black infant mortality rate in the country.

Jourdan Harris was one of 613 Indiana babies who died before their first birthdays in 2015. The state has the eighth-highest rate of infant deaths in the nation. Many are preventable.

There is a lot of public data on maternal health and New York City hospitals. WNYC's Fred Mogul makes sense of it so families can find the best hospital for them.