Maternal Health & Home Visiting

The first hours, days, and years of a child’s life are critical to their long-term health and lifelong learning. High-quality prenatal care, maternal care, child health care, and family support are key to chronic disease prevention, school readiness and success, and strong families.

We work with partners, family support professionals, mothers, fathers, and extended families to strengthen the full continuum of services and supports essential to maternal, infant, and family well-being. Our initiatives focus on strengthening home visiting services, increasing access to community birth options, and leading cross-sector initiatives that bring helping professions together to ensure families don’t face support gaps and navigate challenges alone.

We support Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program awardees in using continuous quality improvement strategies and data to significantly improve outcomes for children and families. We also provide intensive consultation to states in designing and advancing initiatives to improve maternal and child health. Our approach combines process consultation, active implementation support, training and coaching, multimedia resource development, technical assistance, translating and disseminating research, and leading convenings.

We also focus on addressing the field’s challenges, including improving workforce recruitment and retention to ensure families receive the support they need. This work includes collaborating with HRSA and partners to advance the National Strategy for the Home Visiting Workforce. Drawing on research, we are advancing knowledge of how to maintain a strong home visiting workforce and transform the health and well-being of pregnant women and families with young children.