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Maternal Health
Maternal Health
Maternal health is the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. For many women, motherhood is a rewarding experience. For others it is a time of ill health and sometimes even death. Direct causes of maternal morbidity and mortality include hemorrhage, infection, high blood pressure, unsafe abortion, and obstructed labor. Many of these deaths can be avoided, as medical interventions are well known. Access to medical care before, during, and after childbirth is essential to the health and well being of each mother.
2025 Illinois Maternal Mortality Data Report
On November 4th, 2025, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) released its 2021–2022 Maternal Mortality Data Report, informed by its Maternal Mortality Review Committees, which determine causes of death, assess preventability, and develop recommendations. The findings reinforce the need for continued action under Governor JB Pritzker’s Birth Equity Blueprint. Main findings include, an average of 110 women died each year during pregnancy or within one year postpartum, with 43% of pregnancy-associated deaths deemed pregnancy-related. Pregnancy-related mortality increased compared with prior reporting cycles, and 91% of these deaths were considered potentially preventable. Racial disparities persist: Black women were more than twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related conditions and three times as likely to die from medical complications compared with White women. Chicago and other urban counties had the highest mortality. Leading causes included substance use disorder, thrombotic embolism, COVID-19, and hemorrhage, and one-third of deaths occurred more than 60 days postpartum. The report highlights recommendations across providers, hospitals, community organizations, and state systems, aligned with the Birth Equity Blueprint’s goals to improve access, quality, coordination, and data-driven solutions.
Illinois Blueprint for Birth Equity
On September 25, 2025, IDPH and key partners released the first of its kind Illinois’ Blueprint for Birth Equity.
This blueprint builds on the work of past and current partners across sectors and leverages existing research and insights about the barriers to achieving optimal maternal and birth outcomes, including analysis and recommendations from the 2023 Illinois Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Report. In addition, this blueprint represents a year-long engagement process that drew expertise from leaders across multiple sectors, including state agencies, maternal health experts, community leaders, health care providers, and parents.
This blueprint offers an assessment of what the state of Illinois is doing to improve maternal health and birth equity and is intended to complement and align with the efforts of health care providers, advocates, researchers, and local leaders across the state. Among the contributors were four Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies with significant responsibility for maternal health and birth equity: the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS), Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), and Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). These core agencies were joined by additional public agencies whose work intersects with key drivers of maternal health, including the Illinois Department of Insurance (IDOI), Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), and Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO).
Illinois Multi-Sector Maternal Health Strategy
The Illinois Multi-Sector Maternal Health (MSMH) Strategy is a collaborative effort developed in response to a core recommendation in the Illinois’ Blueprint for Birth Equity. The Blueprint called for stronger coordination across government, community organizations, hospitals, philanthropy, and private partners to advance maternal health goals in Illinois.
The MSMH Strategy’s mission is to support Illinois to build a care ecosystem that provides high-quality, respectful care to every pregnant, birthing, and postpartum person, through cross-sector collaboration, innovation, and a commitment to equity.
At the November 2025 Illinois Maternal Health Summit, more than 200 stakeholders from across the state guided this effort, by helping identify the strategy’s initial set of action areas in 2026. From there, a multi-organizational planning team launched four working groups to meet regularly through 2026 to develop and advance action plans that align with the statewide priorities in the Blueprint, require collaboration across sectors, and address key gaps or opportunities to accelerate impact.
The four 2026 action areas are as follows:
- Explore financing levers and promote access to high quality, respectful care in hospitals and beyond
- Strengthen community–clinical integration across an array of birthing options.
- Establish a universal risk assessment referral, and care coordination system
- Develop statewide measures of success
The strategy process will also include planning for a statewide maternal health coordinating function to support continued momentum over multiple years toward these action areas as well as informally among maternal health actors across the state. This work is designed to complement a broader landscape analysis being led by the University of Illinois Chicago’s Maternal Health Innovation Program, as well as related strategic planning and implementation efforts already underway across Illinois. More information about the Illinois Multi-Sector Maternal Health strategy is available here.
Medical Patient Rights of Women (Pregnancy and Childbirth)
Under Public Act 101-0445, effective January 1, 2020, the Medical Patient Rights Act was amended by requiring information about rights with regard to pregnancy and childbirth.
Resources
- Maternal Depression
- Oral Health During Pregnancy
- Patient Information for During Pregnancy
- Women’s Reproductive Health Information
- Illinois Family Planning Program
- Perinatal Regionalization
- Standing Recommendation for Home Visiting Services for Perinatal Illinois Medicaid Program Members
- Standing Recommendation for Lactation Services for Illinois Medicaid Program Recipients
- Standing Recommendation for Doula Services for Illinois Medicaid Recipients
- Standing Order for Pharmacists Dispensing Contraception
