Maternity and Infant Care Act (Sheppard-Towner Act)

The Promotion of the Welfare and Hygiene of Maternity and Infancy Act, more commonly known as the Sheppard–Towner Act was a 1921 U.S. Act of Congress that provided federal funding for maternity and child care. It was sponsored by Senator Morris Sheppard (D) of Texas and Representative Horace Mann Towner (R) of Iowa, and signed by President Warren G. Harding on November 23, 1921.

The Sheppard–Towner Act was the first venture of the federal government into social security legislation and the first major legislation that came to exist after the full enfranchisement of women. This marked the political and economic power of women’s issues since the bill was passed due to pressure from the newly formed Women's Joint Congressional Committee. Before its passage, most of the expansion in public health programs occurred at the state and local levels. Many factors helped its passage including the environment of the Progressive Era.

The act was a response to the lack of adequate medical care for women and children, including reports from Department of Labor's Children's Bureau that found 80% of all expectant mothers did not receive any advice or trained care. The Bureau also investigated high rates of infant and maternal mortality rates. After examining 23,000 infants, they concluded that the U.S. infant mortality rate was 111.2 deaths per 1000 live births, a rate that was higher than most other industrialized countries. The problems were usually preventable and were attributed to the lack of infant care knowledge. For example, rural women had limited access to medical care. Less than half the women in a rural area in Wisconsin were attended to by doctors, and of those cases, the doctors sometimes arrived post-birth to cut the cord. The study also found a correlation between poverty and mortality rate. If a family earned less than $450 annually, one in six babies died within the first year; between $640–850, one in ten; over $1250, one in sixteen.

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