Maternal Health Disparities and Responses Through Advocacy and Policy in the 20th Century (2023)

Undergraduate: Grace Taylor

Faculty Advisor: Matthew Andrews
Department: History

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While maternal mortality is one of the biggest health crises facing the United States today, it is not a new one. This research traces the history of maternal health care in the U.S. since the 1930s and the disparities that arose when only some individuals were able to access skilled providers, resources, and pregnancy and childbirth care. Very little is written about how women who were not white, wealthy, or living in urban areas experienced transformations in the field of obstetrics during the early 20th century. This research also sought to understand grassroots advocacy and policy responses to maternal health disparities during the 1960s through the 1990s using books and a variety of archival sources including reports, pamphlets, and newspaper articles. A study of grassroots organizations demonstrated that community health programming was a very successful method to bring access to maternal health services and resources to marginalized women. These organizations often used local chapters or community health centers, but ran into funding issues, which limited their potential to create systemic or long-lasting change. Policy responses by the federal government attempted to deal with these disparities but often failed to fund community programs or had limits to when programs/funds expired. Additionally, varying political agendas made funding and government support of the social and health programs unpredictable. In order to address the current maternal health crisis, examining the successes and shortcomings of 20th century interventions to the same problem would be particularly important.

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