How to Use maternal in a Sentence

maternal

adjective
  • Doctors are concerned about the effects of the drug on maternal health.
  • In the course of the decade, maternal deaths fell by eighty per cent.
    Atul Gawande, The New Yorker, 23 Aug. 2021
  • The city has some of the highest rates of Black maternal and fetal death in the country.
    Eli Cahan, Rolling Stone, 22 Sep. 2024
  • Over the course of the next year, the facility’s rate of maternal deaths dropped by 70%.
    Maggie McGrath, Forbes, 2 June 2021
  • The name comes from her maternal clan, the Bear Clan, and the arrow on the firm's logo honors her dad's warrior sign.
    The Arizona Republic, 4 Jan. 2024
  • There is this primal, maternal, innate need to save him and to save them.
    Ruth Margalit, The New Yorker, 3 Sep. 2024
  • Over half the state counties are defined as a maternal care desert.
    Jessica Lussenhop, ProPublica, 20 May 2024
  • Georgia earned a failing grade in a March of Dimes report on the state of maternal and infant health.
    Kristal Dixon, Axios, 25 Nov. 2024
  • The Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade is a major blow to maternal health.
    Lauren Valenti, Vogue, 19 July 2022
  • But not all cats are as maternal as this one, according to the comments.
    Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 17 Jan. 2025
  • The maternal mortality rate is among the highest in the world.
    Claire Parker, Washington Post, 5 Nov. 2022
  • This is because maternal age is one of the key risk factors for Down syndrome.
    Robin Elise Weiss, Phd, Parents, 30 July 2024
  • For a year, baby Kathleen was put in the care of her aunt and maternal grandmother.
    Oscar Schwartz, Wired, 9 Dec. 2021
  • Utah and Wyoming, which are trigger law states, have the lowest maternal poverty rates in the nation.
    Elliott Ramos, NBC News, 1 July 2022
  • What caused the changes in maternal death during the pandemic.
    Robert Hart, Forbes, 28 June 2022
  • Raised by his maternal grandparents as a devout Catholic, and was sent to an all-black Catholic school run by nuns.
    Cnn Editorial Research, CNN, 13 June 2021
  • My maternal grandmother gave me the courage to go after my dreams.
    Michael Schneider, Variety, 10 Oct. 2024
  • Zoom out: The state ranks sixth in the nation for maternal age, an Axios analysis found.
    Nadia Lopez, Axios, 28 Apr. 2025
  • The country ranks among the worst places in the world to be born a female, with high infant and maternal mortality rates.
    NBC News, 2 July 2021
  • The twins’ maternal grandmother also died in the airstrike.
    Chantelle Lee, TIME, 14 Aug. 2024
  • Georgia is one of the states with the highest rates of maternal mortality.
    Caitlin Huey-Burns, CBS News, 17 June 2023
  • Oklahoma has one of the highest maternal death rates in the country, according to the CDC.
    Jenny Singer, Glamour, 5 Apr. 2022
  • But did Treya’s maternal hopes and concerns resonate with you?
    Angela Dawson, Forbes, 31 May 2021
  • The prospects of a state committee that was formed to study maternal mortality are also up in the air.
    Marisa Iati, Washington Post, 21 Mar. 2023
  • The prospects of a state committee that was formed to study maternal mortality are also up in the air.
    Brittany Shammas and Marisa Iati, Anchorage Daily News, 22 Mar. 2023
  • Three out of four bases in primary care deserts are also in a mental health care desert, a maternal care desert, or both.
    Brent Jones, NPR, 17 June 2024
  • The iconic Olympian has been at the forefront of trying to bring awareness to the Black maternal health crisis, going all the way to Congress to have her voice heard.
    Essence, 13 Apr. 2022
  • Their work has helped shift the model of maternal care from a reactive to a proactive approach.
    Geri Stengel, Forbes.com, 11 June 2025
  • There is nothing the world loves to put on a pedestal more than a beautiful white mother who inhabits the cross section of feminine beauty and maternal warmth, and who demonstrates ease at inhabiting all the roles society asks her to fill.
    Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture, 15 Aug. 2025
  • Meghan's decision to rent a separate property for filming — rather than host an 80-plus-person crew at her own house — was rooted in her maternal priorities.
    Samantha Stutsman, People.com, 26 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'maternal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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