Olivia and Tom Walton pledge $100M for national campaign to cut maternal deaths

Philanthropists Olivia and Tom Walton announced Thursday they’re giving $100 million toward a national effort to cut maternal deaths in half.

The five-year investment in the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America initiative will go toward state matching grants, partnerships and needed infrastructure to expand proven maternal health interventions, the organization said in a news release.

“America should be the safest place in the world to have a baby,” Olivia Walton, the founder of Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America, said in the release.  “We have the evidence and we have the solutions. Now we need the urgency and investment to make them available to every mom, across the country.”

Olivia Walton is married to Tom Walton, the grandson of Bentonville-based Walmart’s founder Sam Walton. 

The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income nations, with 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 86% of maternal deaths are preventable, according to the CDC.

Arkansas has one of the nation’s highest infant and maternal mortality rates, and a recent March of Dimes report said half of the state’s 75 counties are maternity care deserts. 

Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America is building a bipartisan campaign focused on solutions, including expanding access to maternal health in rural areas through telehealth and expanding the maternal health workforce, the organization said.

Robin Reck, executive director of Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America called the Waltons’ commitment “perhaps the single largest private investment ever made” to cut the nation’s maternal mortality rate. 

“We are not aiming for incremental progress,” Reck said. “We are aiming to cut the maternal mortality rate in half in five years, and as of today we have the team, the partners, and the runway to do it.”