Want to improve maternal health? This handy voting guide will help you pick the best candidate this November
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Chamber of Mothers and Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America built a free tool that puts your state's maternal health data next to the candidates on your 2026 ballot.
There are 85 million mothers in the United States, and how a country treats them is one of the truest measures of its health. By that standard, America is failing. It’s more dangerous to have a baby here than in any other wealthy nation, and most moms couldn’t tell you how their own state stacks up.
A new nonpartisan voter guide is built to change that. Chamber of Mothers and Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America (HMHBA) just launched Vote Like a Mother, a free tool that maps maternal health outcomes across all 50 states and Washington, DC. It can also show you the candidates on your 2026 ballot, and how they stack up on creating better outcomes.
Click into any state and you’ll see its maternal mortality rate measured against the developed-world average, as well as the voting records and platforms of its 2026 gubernatorial candidates. It takes a statistic that’s otherwise abstract and makes it clear and actionable for you, specifically: your state’s rate, your candidates, your ballot.
Why maternal health belongs on your ballot
Roughly a third of pregnancy-related deaths happen in the year after birth, well past the six-week checkup, once postpartum appointments taper off. That’s the same window where overall care thins out. About 40% of new moms never make it to a postpartum visit at all, according to research the campaign cites.
The cost of that gap isn’t only measured by deaths. Our health care system is failing moms in other ways, too: postpartum depression and anxiety that go unscreened, a pelvic floor that never gets rehabbed, lactation problems no one helps solve, and blood pressure spikes that don’t get tracked, just to name a few. Most of it is manageable when someone is paying attention, and quietly dangerous when no one is. The CDC estimates that 87% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. They happen in the gaps.
The numbers are even more startling for Black women, who are more than 3 times as likely to die of a pregnancy-related cause as white women, according to CDC data. American Indian and Alaska Native women are roughly twice as likely, with rural mothers facing the steepest odds as labor and delivery units keep closing. None of that is inevitable. It’s the product of policy, and in maternal health most of that policy runs through the states.
How state races shape maternal health
In 2026, 36 states are electing governors, and governors, along with their legislatures, hold most of the levers that impact mothers directly: how long Medicaid coverage extends after moms give birth, whether a rural hospital can keep its labor and delivery unit open, and whether a nurse ever checks on a new parent at home.
One of the most concrete fixes on the table is extending postpartum Medicaid coverage to a full year. Arkansas, for example, only provides 60 days of coverage.
The guide maps those policies against the people who’ll decide them, so you’re not stuck reconstructing anyone’s record or sifting through articles and google searches.
How to use the guide
The tool walks you through three steps:
- Register and confirm your info. Text MOTHER to 26797 to register or check your registration status. The campaign also asks you to share the tool with 10 other moms.
- Check your ballot. A secure ballot builder at vote411.org/CoM shows you exactly who and what will appear on your ballot.
- Learn the candidates. Choose your state to see its maternal health data alongside profiles of the 2026 gubernatorial candidates, so you can line the records up against the names before you vote.
Who’s behind it
Vote Like a Mother is a joint project of two nonpartisan groups. Chamber of Mothers is a 501(c)(3) with more than 50 local chapters. It organizes mothers around paid leave, affordable childcare and maternal health. HMHBA is a national nonprofit co-founded by Olivia Walton and Cara Osborne in 2026, with a stated goal of cutting the US maternal death rate in half within five years. Both frame maternal health as one of the few issues with real cross-party support, and the voter guide is their bet on turning that support into votes.
Erin Erenberg, CEO of Chamber of Mothers, puts the failure to protect moms at the feet of both parties. “The solution to America’s maternal health crisis isn’t hard to conjure, yet too many elected officials, regardless of party, continue to overlook what moms ask for and need: paid leave, affordable, accessible childcare, and robust investments in maternal healthcare,” she said.
The guide, she added, is meant “to give moms the tools and understanding to vote like a mother,” which she defines as “voting your values and for candidates and ballot measures that support a safe, healthy, and whole experience for moms and kids alike.”
For Robin Reck, HMHBA’s executive director, the injustice is geographic. “It’s unacceptable that where you live still determines whether you survive having a baby in this country,” she said, “and unconscionable that most moms have no idea how their own state stacks up.”
“This year, no mom should have to choose between her family and her vote. Her vote is how she protects her family,” she says.
The takeaway
You don’t have to be a policy whiz to vote like a mother. Pull up your state, see where it ranks, and read what the people on your ballot have actually done about maternal health. If 85 million mothers vote with that in mind, real change is possible.
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