WEEKLY UPDATE: 10/02/25
More than 100 Connecticut hospital leaders, healthcare providers, state officials, and lawmakers convened at the Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA) in Wallingford on Tuesday, September 30, to celebrate the statewide rollout of the Connecticut Urgent Maternal Warning Signs Bracelet Initiative. The in-person Bracelet Initiative kickoff event marked the launch of this nation-leading effort to promote awareness of serious postpartum complications and lifesaving interventions and equip birthing hospitals with critical patient and provider resources.
Hospitals took home more than 35,000 orange postpartum bracelets and a base inventory of printed educational materials. Hospitals will continue developing and advancing implementation plans to distribute orange bracelets and informational handouts to postpartum patients before leaving the facility. Patients are encouraged to wear the bracelet for 12 weeks postpartum.
The bracelet signals to healthcare professionals and first responders that the wearer is newly postpartum, enhancing timely recognition of and response to symptoms of potentially serious postpartum complications, known as “urgent maternal warning signs.” Complications may include eclampsia, blood clots, sepsis, cardiomyopathy, and perinatal depression.
“This coordinated effort weaves provider education, public awareness, and hospital-community partnerships into a tight safety net of cross-sector supports throughout the state,” said Jennifer Jackson, CEO, CHA. “When a postpartum patient wearing an orange bracelet presents in the emergency department or even experiences a medical event in the grocery store, responders know to ask, ‘Were you recently pregnant?’ and ‘Do you have any of these symptoms?’ Recognizing urgent maternal warning signs quickly means the patient gets help faster.”
“A woman’s body undergoes tremendous changes during pregnancy and childbirth, and proper healing takes time. Complications like infections, excessive bleeding, blood clots, or problems with cesarean section wounds can be serious,” said Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) Commissioner Manisha Juthani, M.D. “DPH is proud to partner with CHA on this unique initiative that expands training and awareness and ultimately helps to save lives.”
In September, hundreds of hospital staff, EMS personnel and emergency department (ED) staff, and community-based healthcare providers participated in live virtual training sessions specifically tailored to inform each audience of their role in and relationship to the initiative. The initiative also establishes a comprehensive framework to guide birthing hospitals’ implementation of the Bracelet Initiative within their facilities.
The Connecticut Urgent Maternal Warning Signs Bracelet Initiative is funded by DPH’s Maternal Health Innovation Grant. Funding from the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) is also supporting the initiative’s rollout. Similar postpartum bracelet programs have produced positive results in other geographic areas. Connecticut will be one of the first states in the nation to implement such an initiative statewide.
Learn more about the Bracelet Initiative at cthosp.org/bracelet.
Click here to read CHA’s full press release on the Bracelet Initiative’s statewide rollout.
Click here for WTNH’s coverage of the event.
Click here for Connecticut Public’s coverage of the event.
