Implementing a Maternal health and PRegnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone (IMPROVE) Initiative. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched the IMPROVE initiative in 2019 in response to high rates of pregnancy-related complications and deaths, also called maternal morbidity and mortality, in the United States.

The IMPROVE initiative supports research to reduce preventable causes of maternal deaths and improve health for women before, during, and after delivery. It includes a special emphasis on health disparities and populations that are disproportionately affected, such as racial and ethnic minorities, very young women and women of advanced maternal age, and people with disabilities.

See Research & Funding Opportunities and other resources online.