Earlier this month, the Arkansas Department of Health, alongside Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, launched a statewide campaign to raise awareness of prenatal and postpartum care at the 92 Arkansas health units across the state.
Dr. Kay Chandler is the surgeon general of Arkansas. She says these health units are being served by APRNs — Advanced Practice Registered Nurses — who have specialized training in prenatal care and women's care.
"And I'm telling you, I've been to several of the local health units to observe, and I'm just so impressed. They will go in — women will go in. I think they will feel that support, that care. They'll feel, 'I'm not alone. They're here to help me.' And I just can't be more thrilled to do this. And recently I went to one of the health units in Jonesboro, and it was great to see the signage because we have some signage that tells about this new awareness campaign that we're raising and what we're doing here, this new initiative and the services that are offered."
The campaign is called Claim Your Care. Chandler says that language is specific. These health units are ready to help women now, and they are encouraging women to take advantage of that access.
"When they started putting that together, they did a lot of focus groups and interviews with people in different communities, different demographics. And they found that 78% of women and families did not know that they could get a pregnancy test, pregnancy care support at the local health units, at the Arkansas health unit. So that was a big issue. And then we also know that about 40% of women that are on Medicaid were not seeking prenatal care after the first trimester. And we know that early prenatal care is so important. And I'll go back even further — preconceptual care is so important for a healthy pregnancy."
The Arkansas Maternal Mortality Review Committee estimates that 95% of all pregnancy-related deaths in Arkansas are preventable, with nearly 70% of those pregnancy-related deaths in Arkansas occurring postpartum. Data shows that Arkansas has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the U.S.
Arkansas is also the only state in America that has not extended Medicaid coverage for a full 12 months after childbirth. Chandler says the biggest reason Arkansas has not joined every other state is that its coverage is different.
"We have the Arkansas ARHOME, which is Health Opportunity for Me, where women can actually transition over into ARHOME. And actually that allows for more availability because then they basically have Blue Cross Blue Shield, they have Ambetter, they have something like that — where, unfortunately, you know, just the nature of things, there are clinics and providers who don't take Medicaid, but pretty much everybody is going to take ARHOME. And so there are other services that go along with it. So what we have felt like, and what the idea is, is that we want to make sure women can transition over to that care."
Data from the Arkansas Department of Human Services shows that 44% of postpartum mothers lost Medicaid coverage between October and December 2025. And an October report from the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement found that more than 35% of severe maternal morbidity events occur in the window between six weeks and one year after delivery — the precise gap that advocates say a 12-month postpartum Medicaid extension would address.
You can find more details about the Claim Your Care program and where to find your local Arkansas health unit at ClaimYourCareAR.com.
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