Neighborhood evictions and maternal and infant outcomes in New Jersey

700 women die each year from pregnancy-related causes and 50,000 pregnant women experience severe 
maternal morbidity (SMM), defined as unexpected health problems related to pregnancy that result in short- and long-term consequences. New Jersey ranks as the 14th worst state for maternal mortality, and there are substantial and persistent inequities in maternal health: a Black mother in New Jersey is almost seven times more likely than a white mother to die from maternity-related complications. A similar pattern is observed for infants. Successfully advancing maternal and child health requires interventions that address socioeconomic factors affecting underserved and disinvested communities, where a lack of affordable housing is an increasingly salient determinant of health. Low housing affordability increases a family’s risk of living in low quality, unsafe, and unstable housing; increases stress associated with struggling to meet rental or mortgage payments; and reduces available income to spend on basic needs such as food, education, and health care.However, there is a lack of evidence assessing how neighborhood housing conditions affect pregnancy-related outcomes across diverse populations. In this project, we link publicly available census tract-level measures of housing affordability and eviction filing and judgment rates with New Jersey birth certificate and all-payer hospital billing records from 2010-2018 to assess how these measures of housing stability impact maternal and infant health during pregnancy, at birth, and postpartum.