The numbers come first. Olivia and Tom Walton are committing an initial $100 million over five years to Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America, the group founded by Olivia Walton in May to cut maternal mortality rates in half across the U.S. The money is designed to fund state-matching grants, partnerships and infrastructure, with the expectation that it will bring in more public and private capital.
The U.S. has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among wealthy nations. Even after a decline in 2023, the rate sat at nearly 19 deaths per 100,000 live births, and 669 women died of maternal causes that year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The risk is not spread evenly. For Black women, the rate was 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, more than three times the rate for white women. HMHBA says two-thirds of maternal deaths happen in the year after birth, and 40% of mothers do not receive follow-up care. Rural mothers also face worse odds as hospitals keep closing obstetric units.
Olivia Walton said the issue is personal. 'It was more dangerous for me to give birth to my children than it was for my mother to give birth to me in the 1980s,' she said in a statement. 'That is inexcusable—and it is fixable.' She also said nearly 90% of maternal deaths are preventable and that the solutions already exist.
Robin Reck, HMHBA's executive director, said: 'The U.S. spends more money for worse outcomes on maternal health. Far more than any other country in the entire world.' Reck added that 87% of these deaths are preventable and 65% happen after the baby is born.
The stakes are not only human but financial. A Heartland Forward study estimated that poor health outcomes in 2020 cost the U.S. economy $165 billion. Preventing half of those avoidable outcomes would save nearly $80 billion per year, according to the report cited by the group. March of Dimes found first-year medical costs run roughly four times higher for preterm infants than for full-term ones.
Tom Walton is the grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton, and the family's roughly 44% stake in Walmart is worth about $440 billion, Fortune reported earlier this year. Most of the family's giving flows through the Walton Family Foundation, which awarded nearly $550 million in grants in 2024.
HMHBA is also backing two bipartisan bills, and the effort is being pitched as one of the few issues still able to draw support across party lines. A national poll released in July found 86% of voters say maternal health needs to improve, and 79% would vote for a candidate who champions such reforms.
For taxpayers and families, the lesson is simple: bad outcomes are expensive, and delayed care is a policy failure as much as a medical one. Capital can help, but only if states stop treating maternal health like a line item and start treating it like infrastructure.
The market has already voted on the scale of the problem. The remaining question is whether government and donors will meet it with the same urgency as the Walton family has. When private capital is forced to patch over public failure, the bill still lands somewhere. In this case, it lands on mothers, babies and the broader economy.
