The Maternity Conundrum: Can Information Technology Improve Intergenerational Health Outcomes of Mothers and of Babies?

Health at birth is an important predictor of long-term outcomes and the wide variation in Cesarean section rates raises questions about the quality of maternal care and has important cost implications. While information technology (IT) holds great promise for improving the quality and efficiency of care and for lowering the health care costs, it is far from certain whether and how electronic health records improve maternal and infant well-being and lower future risk in outcomes. This study contributes to the existing literature by constructing a unique dataset that includes rich information about medical interventions as well as a battery of maternal and birth outcomes to investigate the effect of electronic health records in the context of intergenerational health. We find evidence that hospitals' electronic sharing of health records with outside providers is associated with a decrease in the probability of maternal complications and babies going to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).