This Mother’s Day, as we celebrate and honor the moms/mums/aunts/aunties/grandmothers and maternal figures in our lives, we must also acknowledge the ongoing maternal health crisis in the United States. It is a crisis that Representative and Nurse Lauren Underwood (D-IL-14) understands well, especially its severe impact on Black mothers. Marrying her nursing background with a genuine enthusiasm for the power of policy to improve and save lives, she co-founded the Black Maternal Health Caucus and introduced The Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2021.

The CDC reports that Black mothers die at three to four times the rate of White mothers and that the mortality rate of Black infants is higher than that of any other ethnic group in the U.S. Regardless of income and education level, childbirth for Black women is more dangerous than it is for White women. In this episode, we hear from three healthcare innovators who personally and professionally—as Black women and advisors to the Black Mamas Matter Alliance—work tirelessly to advance policy grounded in human rights and reproductive justice to improve Black maternal health and lives.

In this episode, we hear from Nicole Lincoln MSN, RN, FNP-BC, CCNS about her work on NICI, a radical reimagining of the infant incubator. What started as an idea to create a low-cost, portable, and single-use incubator for our smallest and most fragile citizens, morphed into new concepts about how the incubator could be used in new ways, new places, and solve new problems.

Pioneer, MacArthur Fellow and Nurse Midwife Ruth Watson Lubic, EdD, RN, CNM, FAAN, FACNM, opened the first freestanding birth center for low-income families in New York City at a time where it was common for women to have very little say in their maternitycare and labor and delivery experience. In this episode, Lubic talks with Shawna Butler about her six decades of experience in nurse-midwifery, how far care delivery in childbirth has come and what the next 60 years of health innovation in this space could be.