# A comprehensive assessment of maternal health and pregnancy outcomes among women veterans

> **NIH VA I01** · VETERANS ADMIN PALO ALTO HEALTH CARE SYS · 2024 · —

## Abstract

Background: Women are a growing share of the VA population, especially among younger Veterans. To date
there hasn’t been a comprehensive assessment of pregnancy outcomes among women Veterans, which is
needed, especially given that Veterans have higher pregnancy risk profiles than the general population.
Significance: Given the growing share of women Veterans, their increased pregnancy risk, and known U.S.
racial and geographic maternal health disparities, VA needs to better understand the provision and outcomes
of pregnancy care to implement policies to optimize pregnancy outcomes for Veterans. Findings will facilitate
the VA Office of Women’s Health Services (WHS) efforts to improve pregnancy care and outcomes.
Innovation and Impact: Existing state of the art methods will be innovatively applied to examine national VA
and state Medicaid records in parallel to comprehensively assess VA maternity care. This project is the first to
rigorously compare VA pregnancy outcomes with those in the general population at a national level.
Specific Aims: Aim 1. This aim has two parts, of which the first is purely descriptive: We will describe a wide
range of key maternal outcomes, examining trends and changes over time (with respect to key VA policy
changes) for all pregnancies where the VA provided pregnancy care (purchased). Key maternal outcomes will
include cesarean deliveries, pregnancy complications and severe maternal morbidity (SMM), a CDC defined
set of serious life-threatening maternal complications. We will also describe a broad range of maternal risk
factors (individual health factors, and systemic factors of race and geography) and process outcomes including
use of prenatal care, VA mental healthcare, and post-partum reintegration to VA care. We will also examine if
Veterans with known risk-factors deliver at settings appropriate for their risk levels, as outcomes are
demonstrably worse when high-risk deliveries occur in sub-optimal settings. Concurrently we will assess key
infant outcomes (e.g., mortality, prematurity, and unexpected NICU admission—i.e. in non-preterm infants).
The final part of Aim 1 will use regression analyses to examine the impacts of VA policy changes on key
outcomes, while also analyzing the extent of racial/ethnic and urban/rural disparities in outcomes.
 Aim 2: Repeat, in parallel, the Aim 1 descriptive analyses, for deliveries to VA-enrolled Veterans who
do NOT use VA maternity benefits, but instead use Medicaid. We will assess how these Veterans differ in
characteristics and maternal outcomes. Since they have chosen not to have VA cover their delivery, we will
also assess their use of VA care in the years prior to and after delivery to determine if opting for non-VA
pregnancy care was a temporary or lasting healthcare shift away from VA.
 Aim 3: Compare key outcomes (e.g., complication rates and SMM) of VA-covered deliveries and of
Medicaid-covered Veterans’ deliveries with those in the general population. Examine if k...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10910987
- **Project number:** 5I01HX003314-03
- **Recipient organization:** VETERANS ADMIN PALO ALTO HEALTH CARE SYS
- **Principal Investigator:** CIARAN S. PHIBBS
- **Activity code:** I01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-04-01 → 2025-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10910987

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10910987, A comprehensive assessment of maternal health and pregnancy outcomes among women veterans (5I01HX003314-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10910987. Licensed CC0.

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