How much can hospital-level interventions improve maternal health? Evidence from state Perinatal Quality Collaboratives

Over the last 20 years, nearly all states have adopted Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (PQCs), which set guidelines for hospitals to provide higher standards of prenatal care. In this paper, I use individual-level natality data from 1989 to 2019 and a stacked difference in differences design comparing maternal and infant health outcomes in US states that have recently established a PQC to those that have not yet established one. Estimates indicate that PQCs decrease eclampsia, with the effect driven by Black mothers. Evidence also shows that PQCs reduce intensive care unit admissions for mothers.