Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America announced at this year's Heartland Summit that Arkansas and Kentucky will be the first states to receive major investments from the campaign, with $10 million going to each state over five years.

The goal: Help states scale proven maternal health strategies as part of a broader $100 million effort to cut the U.S. maternal mortality rate in half by 2031.

Why it's important: Summit speakers emphasized that the majority of maternal deaths are preventable and that rural communities face particularly steep access challenges.

"For moms in rural America, the death rate is twice as high. For Black and brown moms, it's about two to three times higher," said Olivia Walton, CEO of Ingeborg Investments and founder of Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America.

• "The CDC consistently finds that over 80% of our maternal mortality is preventable. This is solvable today."

Here's how:

🤰 Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders pointed to efforts already underway in Arkansas to expand reimbursement for doulas, community health workers and midwives and connect more pregnant women with prenatal care.

• Why now: Sanders said more than 1,100 of the state's roughly 35,000 pregnant women do not see a doctor until they are in labor.
• Arkansas has also launched a statewide effort to connect more women with community health centers, which are available in all 75 counties.

🚑Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear emphasized the need to bring care to rural families in Kentucky rather than expecting patients to travel long distances to get it.

• Kentucky plans to expand in-home nursing support after birth, giving families another point of care during the critical postpartum period.
• Beshear also pointed to telehealth as a way to reach patients who live far from hospitals and specialists.

"There are places in Kentucky right now where women have to drive about an hour to give birth," said Beshear. "So this is an area we have to invest in."

Here's what else: Heartland Forward recently launched the beta version of its new Maternal Resiliency Index, an open-access tool designed to show policymakers how moms and babies are faring at the county and state level.

• Emily Oster, founder and CEO of ParentData, who helped develop the index, said the goal is to identify where outcomes are better or worse than expected and help policymakers target the policies most likely to make a difference.
• "What gets measured gets managed," said Oster.

How it works: The index looks at stressors, supports and birth outcomes, while tracking policy interventions that could improve health and reduce costs. For example:

• Oster said Medicaid coverage for doulas is expected to save $1.34 for every dollar spent.
• Home blood pressure monitoring for high-risk women is expected to return $4.79 for every dollar spent.

As the tool is continually updated with new features, it will give policymakers a way to weigh both the health and economic case for specific interventions before deciding where to invest.

The takeaway: The new funding gives states resources to act, while the Maternal Resiliency Index is designed to help them decide where those resources can have the greatest impact.