The Mother Is the Family's Nervous System: The Data

When a mother's nervous system is running on empty, the whole house runs on empty with it. A $100 million pledge for maternal health just told us the country is ready to fund mothers. Here is the data on why the foundation of women's health is a nervous system that gets to rest, and where we fit in building it.

In September 2026, Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America announced a $100 million commitment to make giving birth in the United States safer, with a goal of cutting the maternal mortality rate in half. I read the announcement twice, then I read the research underneath it, and what I found is the reason I'm writing this. The numbers make a case I have been making from a bathtub for eight years: a mother's health is infrastructure, and the ground floor of that infrastructure is her nervous system.

What Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America is doing

Their work sits inside the medical system, and it is exactly the right work. The organization, led by Olivia Walton, is funding care improvements state by state and using its $100 million as a first-mover commitment that invites state governments, corporations, and other funders to match it. Faster, better reporting of maternal deaths is one of its pillars, and it is backing bipartisan federal legislation including the Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act and the NIH IMPROVE Act. The urgency is real. The CDC counted 688 deaths during pregnancy or shortly after birth in 2024, and the maternal mortality rate rose to 19 deaths per 100,000 live births, up from 18.6 the year before.

I read a commitment of that size as a signal. When serious philanthropic capital goes first on mothers, it tells every other funder that maternal wellbeing is a category worth building. They are strengthening the hospital and the care around birth. The data below shows why the years that follow need builders too.

What the maternal health data shows

• 22.5%of pregnancy-related deaths have a mental health condition as the underlying cause, a leading cause nationally.
• 87%of pregnancy-related deaths were determined to be preventable.
• 53%of pregnancy-related deaths happen between one week and one year after delivery.

These figures come from the CDC's Maternal Mortality Review Committees, the state panels that study each death to learn how it could have been prevented. In the most recent national dataset, released in August 2025 and drawing on 46 state committees, mental health conditions were the underlying cause in 22.5% of pregnancy-related deaths, and 87% of all pregnancy-related deaths were judged preventable. Earlier committee data from 36 states showed the timing: more than half of these deaths occurred between a week and a year after delivery, in the long stretch after a mother has gone home and the attention has moved on.

Read together, those three numbers say something hopeful. The largest single driver is one we can reach, nearly all of it is preventable, and the window where help matters most is the ordinary months of a mother's life at home. That is a window communities, employers, brands, and nonprofits can all show up in.

The strain continues long after the first birthday

• 48%of parents say that most days their stress is completely overwhelming, compared with 26% of other adults.
• 41%of parents say that most days they are so stressed they cannot function, compared with 20% of other adults.
• 4xChildren of a primary caregiver in poor mental health are four times more likely to be in poor general health.

In 2024 the U.S. Surgeon General issued a public health advisory on the mental health and wellbeing of parents, covering the roughly 63 million parents raising children under 18. A third of parents reported high stress in the past month compared with 20% of other adults, and nearly half described their stress as completely overwhelming on most days. The advisory also documented how that strain travels: children whose primary caregiver reported poor mental health were four times more likely to have poor general health and twice as likely to have a mental, behavioral, or developmental disorder.

This is what I mean when I say the mother is the family's nervous system. Every signal in a household routes through her. When she is regulated, the house is regulated. When she has spent years on high alert, everyone wired to her feels it, and the data shows up in her children's health records.

What it costs to leave the foundation unfunded

Mathematica researchers built the most comprehensive model to date of what untreated perinatal mood and anxiety disorders cost the country. For the children born in a single year, 2017, the total came to $14.2 billion when following each mother and child from pregnancy through five years after birth, an average of about $32,000 for every mother-child pair affected. About 60% of that cost relates to the mother, including lost productivity and health care, and about 40% relates to the child. These conditions affect at least one in seven women. Every dollar that helps a mother stay regulated, supported, and working is a dollar working against that $14.2 billion.

The Foundation Stack: how a mother's health gets built

Here is the framework I use when I explain where an organization like ours belongs in women's health. A building goes up from the ground, and so does a mother's wellbeing. Each layer holds up the one above it, and every layer needs its own builders and its own funders.

1. StabilityThe lights are on and the emergency is handled. A nervous system can only stand down when the house is safe. Where we work: the Mom Bomb Lifeline Program
2. RestorationA daily, repeatable signal to the body that it is safe to come out of high alert. Twenty minutes, door closed, warm water. Where we work: the ritual and the Restoration Library
3. CapacityIncome, skills, and community, so that stability lasts beyond a single grant. Where we work: Mom Bomb Live
4. Clinical careSafe births, screening, treatment, and strong hospitals. Where Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America and the medical system work

Read from the bottom up. Clinical care reaches furthest when the three layers beneath it are solid.

What the research says about warm water and rest

The bath has always been treated as an indulgence, and the sleep science says otherwise. Biomedical engineers at the University of Texas at Austin reviewed more than 5,000 studies and published a meta-analysis in Sleep Medicine Reviews. They found that a warm bath or shower of about 104 to 109 degrees Fahrenheit, taken one to two hours before bed for as little as ten minutes, was associated with falling asleep faster, better self-rated sleep quality, and better sleep efficiency. The mechanism is the body's own: warm water draws blood to the hands and feet, core temperature drops afterward, and that drop is one of the body's cues for sleep.

What the research supports is the warm water, the timing, and the closed door. Our salts and bath bombs are the invitation to take that time and the ritual that helps a body learn the routine. The rest is the restoration.

Where Mom Bomb fits

We built two organizations that hold each other up. Mom Bomb makes clean, vegan bath products sold in more than 3,000 stores, and every purchase funds MomBomb.org, our 501(c)(3). Through the nonprofit, the Lifeline Program gives direct relief to mothers in crisis by paying the bill that stems the tide, whether that is a utility, a camp fee, or childcare, straight to the service provider. Mom Bomb Live is our free eight-week workforce program that trains mothers to earn from home in live-stream and social commerce. You can read how the two halves work together in Women Over 50 Are Not OK: How We Build a Floor Again and The Mom-Cession Is Real.

The applications we receive from mothers every month reach far beyond what we can currently fund. That gap is the opportunity. The model is built, the demand is proven, and additional funding goes directly into more mothers reached.

How to get involved

Questions people ask

What is the leading cause of pregnancy-related death in the United States?

According to the CDC's Maternal Mortality Review Committees, mental health conditions are a leading underlying cause, accounting for 22.5% of pregnancy-related deaths in the most recent national data. The committees determined that 87% of all pregnancy-related deaths were preventable.

What does it mean that the mother is the family's nervous system?

It means a household takes its cues from her. The Surgeon General's 2024 advisory found that children whose primary caregiver is in poor mental health are four times more likely to be in poor general health. Supporting a mother's ability to rest and recover supports everyone who depends on her.

Does a warm bath really help you rest?

A meta-analysis in Sleep Medicine Reviews found that a warm bath or shower one to two hours before bed, for as little as ten minutes, was associated with falling asleep faster and better sleep quality. The benefit comes from the warm water and the timing.

How does Mom Bomb support women's health?

Mom Bomb encourages a daily restoration ritual through its bath products, and every purchase funds MomBomb.org, which provides direct relief to mothers in crisis through the Lifeline Program and free workforce training through Mom Bomb Live.

Sources

1. Associated Press via NBC, "Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies pledges $100M to cut maternal mortality rate in half," September 2026. nbcnewyork.com
2. Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health, "Maternal Suicide in the U.S.," summarizing CDC Maternal Mortality Review Committee data released August 2025. policycentermmh.org
3. CDC, "Four in 5 pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. are preventable," data from 36 states, 2017 to 2019. archive.cdc.gov
4. Office of the U.S. Surgeon General, Parents Under Pressure: Advisory on the Mental Health and Well-Being of Parents, 2024. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
5. Mathematica, "Societal Costs of Untreated Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders in the United States," 2019. mathematica.org
6. Haghayegh S, et al. "Before-bedtime passive body heating by warm shower or bath to improve sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis." Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2019. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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