Safer Births.
Healthier Beginnings.

Learn how Virginia’s new SAFE Birth VA law is improving care for moms and babies by requiring standardized, life-saving protocols for obstetric emergencies across hospitals and birth centers.

SAFE Birth VA

SAFE Birth VA (Standardized Approaches For Emergencies in Birth – Virginia) refers to the VNPC initiative ordered by HB2753/SB1279, which was signed into law in March 2025. HB2753/SB1279 seeks to protect the lives of pregnant and postpartum mothers and their babies by improving emergency care in birth settings. HB2753/SB1279 requires all Virginia hospitals with emergency departments or labor and delivery units, freestanding emergency departments, and birthing centers to work with the VNPC to implement standardized protocols for identifying and responding to serious obstetric emergencies— such as hemorrhage, preeclampsia, and eclampsia. These protocols are based on evidence-based guidelines, which the Virginia Neonatal Perinatal Collaborative (VNPC) supports hospitals and outpatient providers in implementing statewide.

The law also mandates that the VNPC collect data on protocol use and maternal outcomes and submit an annual report to the Secretary of Health and Human Resources and the General Assembly. Overall, SAFE Birth VA is helping to drive long-term improvements in maternal and infant health across Virginia.

What we’re doing

The VNPC is in the beginning stages of coordinating with Virginia hospitals, freestanding emergency departments and birth centers to implement SAFE Birth VA.

The scope of SAFE Birth VA is far reaching. The language of HB2753/SB1279 dictates that all hospitals with emergency departments or labor and delivery units, freestanding emergency departments, and birthing centers across Virginia must participate. The total number of these facilities are approximated below:

49

Birth Hospitals

59

Emergency Departments

31

Birth Centers

23

NICUs, and 12 special care nurseries

37

Well-baby Units

12

Freestanding EDs

Phase 1

From July 1 to Sept. 30, 2025.
  • Create a central SAFE Birth VA webpage.

  • Hold two informational webinars.

  • Gather contact information for all labor and delivery units, emergency departments, freestanding emergency rooms and birth centers.

  • Reach maximum survey participation. 

  • Submit report to Genearl Assembly 9/30/2025.

Phase 2

From Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2025.

  • Provide survey results to hospitals.
  • Identify evidence-based protocols, checklists and templates to address Urgent Maternal Warning Signs.
  • Establish Technical Assistance Schedule
  • Identify next steps and a clear timeline for 2026.

Every day is a good day to start a QI project.

43

of 49 Birth Hospitals represented

66.67%

of responding facilities have 10+ years of QI experience

Considering participating in a VNPC quality improvement project? Review the powerpoint shared at our SAFE Birth VA informational webinars here.

When you’re ready to get started, fill out the survey below.

** Facilities that responded by September 15th, 2025 were included in the release of this year’s General Asembly Annual Report (due Oct. 1st). Any facility is welcome to respond; updates will be made weekly. Thank you to the hospitals that have submitted.**
Meeting of the Maternal Health Data Task Force.

Meeting of the Maternal Health Data Task Force.

Maternal Health Data Task Force

In 2024, Governor Youngkin re-established the Task Force on Maternal Health Data and Quality Measures wih Executive Order 32. The purpose of the Task Force is to evaluate maternal health data and improve care quality and outcomes for all.

Clinical Environmental Scan

Part of the VNPC’s mission is to improve data collection, gather up-to-date knowledge on trends, and expand access to these insights in an effort to guide the work in improving maternal and infant health outcomes.

In spirit with this goal, the VNPC Data Team has most recently put out a clinical environment scan, which provides an overview of clinical maternal and newborn health trends in Virginia from 2020 to 2024.