Maternal health is a core focus at Moms Clean Air Force. Pregnant people want nothing more than to create a safe and healthy first environment for their babies. But climate-fueled extreme weather as well as air pollution is making it harder to do just that. Our work pushing for the strongest possible federal standards across all sectors to reduce harmful air and climate pollution supports maternal health. We also advocate for legislation that protects maternal and infant health, like the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act and the Resolution on Protecting Latina Maternal and Infant Health From Extreme Heat and Air Pollution.

In an effort to protect maternal health we:

• EDUCATE We create educational content to inform our members and the public about maternal health concerns—plus steps they can take to safeguard their bodies and their growing babies.
• PETITION Our members have submitted 6,987 messages to Congress telling them to support Black and Latina maternal and infant health.
• PARTNER Moms works with several organizations on maternal health, including National Hispanic Health Foundation, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas (National Alliance of Women Farmworkers), and March of Dimes.
• AMPLIFY Members of Moms and EcoMadres attended and spoke at Representative Barragán’s press conference to introduce the Resolution on Protecting Latina Maternal and Infant Health From Extreme Heat and Air Pollution in September 2024.
• SUCCEED Moms pushed EPA to finalize enhanced protections to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) in 2024, a rule we’ve been working on for over a decade. Nearly 60 Moms testified at EPA’s hearing for the 2024 rule about mercury’s harms to children’s and babies’ developing brains and their experiences avoiding mercury during pregnancy.

So much remains unknown about the impact environmental hazards can have on moms and developing infants. Climate change has drastically increased the incidence of heat waves, wildfires, and superstorms, all of which also increase air pollution. Extreme heat, for example, exacerbates ground-level ozone pollution, commonly called smog. Exposure to air pollutants such as ozone during certain periods of pregnancy has been linked to preterm birth, which can have long-term health consequences.

Pregnancy is a time of extreme sensitivity. Children exposed to pollution and extreme heat in the womb are at risk of low birth weight, improper immune system development, lower cognitive intelligence, and gestational diabetes as well as long-term health impacts, including asthma and high blood pressure.

While air pollution and extreme heat threaten all pregnant people, the impacts are disproportionately high in Black and Latino communities owing to their proximity to sources of pollution as well as exposure to extreme heat in living and working environments. Hispanic mothers are more likely to live in areas with high levels of air pollution compared to their white counterparts, are more impacted by wildfire smoke, and are at higher risk of stillbirths from ozone exposure. In the United States, Black women of all income and education levels are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women.