The March 2018 omnibus appropriations bill, led by Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) and Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), included language calling on the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to request that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conduct the study that resulted the report Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, and Choice (2020).

The ad hoc committee of experts convened by the National Acadmies authored the report, which examines the evidence on health outcomes across birth settings, particularly with regard to subpopulations of women. (See full statement of task below.)