Center for Maternal Health Innovation, Research and Action (MIRA)
About the Center
The prenatal and postpartum periods are critical windows of vulnerability. Health care providers, community organizations and government agencies need high quality evidence to guide decisions about how to best support the health of pregnant and postpartum women and their children. The Center for Maternal Health Innovation, Research and Action (MIRA) is a research center dedicated to improving maternal and child health outcomes through solution oriented, evidence-driven research. We bring together researchers, clinicians, public health leaders, community organizations, and policymakers to make informed decisions to better support pregnant and postpartum individuals.
Research
Research Areas
Our research focuses on the impact of financial vulnerability on access to care, health outcomes and well-being for pregnant and postpartum people and the impact of interventions to address economic vulnerability.
Maternal care financing is a key role in shaping care access and quality. We investigate existing payer models including private and public reforms, incentive programs, and explore how these can be leveraged to improve maternal health outcomes.
We examine access and quality of reproductive health care along the perinatal continuum (i.e. fertility, prenatal, postpartum, etc.).
Major maternal morbidity and mortality is increasingly understood to be driven by cardiovascular disease risk factors and mental health challenges which are often discovered for the first time during pregnancy. Our research explores strategies to address these major drives of adverse pregnancy, postpartum and later life outcomes.
Our research collaborates with state policy-makers to rigorously evaluate interventions that receive substantial investments of public resources, such as home visiting programs.