As part of the Maternal and Infant Health Initiative, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is pleased to announce the Improving Maternal Health by Reducing Low-Risk Cesarean Delivery (LRCD) Learning Collaborative, which will use two strategies to offer technical assistance to states and their partners: (1) a webinar series and (2) an affinity group.

For more details and to register for the webinars, visit this page. 

Cesarean deliveries place birthing individuals and infants at higher risk for adverse outcomes. Reducing the rate of cesarean births for individuals at low risk from a vaginal birth provides an opportunity to improve both maternal and infant health. Nationally, the Medicaid LRCD rate was 25.9 percent in 2020, with marked disparities by race (30.6 percent among Black birthing persons and 24.7 percent among White birthing persons). As the largest single payer of pregnancy-related services, state Medicaid and CHIP agencies have an important role to play in reducing the number of LRCD births, reducing disparities, and improving health equity.

The learning collaborative will begin with a webinar series open to all state Medicaid and CHIP agencies and stakeholders demonstrating the potential impact of LRCD on maternal and infant health, describing disparities in the populations who have LRCDs, and outlining the approaches Medicaid and CHIP agencies may put in place to reduce the number of LRCD births. 

See full details here.

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