Eugene R. Declercq, PhD

Biography

Gene Declercq combines formal training in political science with almost twenty years of experience as a certified childbirth educator to examine policy and practice related to childbirth in the US and abroad. His recent work in examining maternal mortality and morbidity in the US has emphasized the importance of systems approaches to improving women’s health. This requires a focus on women’s health in the community as well as in clinical settings and not only during pregnancy, but throughout the lifecourse. He is part of the collaborative team that has completed three national studies and a 2018 statewide study of women's experiences in childbirth entitled Listening to Mothers. He was a technical adviser to the film documentary, The Business of Being Born and a producer and presenter of "Birth by the Numbers," a 20 minute video that examines outcomes associated with current US birth practices. With student collaborators, he developed and maintains the companion website, www.birthbythenumbers.org which provides up-to-date data on trends in childbirth practices and outcomes.

He was principal investigator on two NIH funded collaborative projects examining child and maternal outcomes associated with Assisted Reproductive Technologies (MOSART project) and is one of the founders of the Pregnancy to Early Life Longitudinal (PELL) data system that has linked vital statistics, hospital, and administrative data on more than 1,200,000 births in Massachusetts since 1998. He has also been active in a variety of public health projects in his hometown of Lawrence, Massachusetts. As an educator, he is a past president of the Association of Teachers of Maternal and Child Health and has been a recipient of the Norman Scotch Award for outstanding teaching at BUSPH. He is also a recipient of the Martha May Eliot Award from the American Public Health Association for service to maternal and child health and the Greg Alexander Award for research in maternal and child health epidemiology.