Independent, nationally representative research establishing the recurring National Benchmark of U.S. Mothers.
American mothers are the primary operators of family life — the default caregivers for children's health, education, and digital environments, and the group most exposed to the interaction of economic pressure, institutional trust shifts, and the fast-moving child-tech environment.
Foundations, health systems, employer coalitions, technology platforms, and policy organizations increasingly need recurring, structured visibility into what mothers are experiencing across family economics, institutional trust, and the environments shaping their children — and how those shifts will affect the decisions they're accountable for.
The National Benchmark of U.S. Mothers establishes durable national indicators institutions can track over time. The Benchmark answers whether things are getting better or worse — and for whom.
New to the Benchmark? Read the framework overview →
A poll tells you what people think today. A benchmark tells you whether things are getting better or worse — and for whom.
Existing national instruments — including the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) — capture what the health system records about children. The National Benchmark of U.S. Mothers captures what mothers are experiencing in real time, across maternal, family, and institutional domains — before those conditions register in clinical or administrative data.
The Benchmark is structured to measure five dimensions that traditional clinical and administrative surveys are not designed to capture:
The Benchmark's primary barometer — composite of maternal capacity, strain, and buffering resources
Household economic pressure as mothers experience it — housing, childcare, healthcare, food, and what families forgo when costs exceed capacity.
Maternal trust across institutions and industries — schools, healthcare, food and beverage, technology platforms, and government
Structural conditions shaping children — digital and AI exposure, commercial design, neighborhood safety, and generational norms across the environments mothers navigate.
Children's mental, emotional, and behavioral health access — school responsiveness, insurance adequacy, peer relationships, and the friction families face when seeking help.
Standing analytical deliverables include cross-partisan trust analysis (political ideology × institutional trust) — surfacing findings that hold across political groups, which is a distinctive measurement capability in a polarized national environment.
For institutions whose decisions depend on visibility into how maternal conditions and institutional trust move over time, the Benchmark provides a measurement layer with consistent methodology, cross-wave comparability, and transparent governance.
Structured, Recurring National Measurement
Count on Mothers is establishing the National Benchmark of U.S. Mothers — a recurring, nationally representative measurement framework designed to track key maternal and family indicators on a consistent national cadence.
The Benchmark is anchored in a fixed core instrument and consistent sampling methodology, designed to generate stable, comparable national indicators across waves rather than isolated findings.
The objective is to establish durable national indicators that can serve as reference points for institutions shaping children’s environments over time.
Supplemental modules may be fielded periodically under defined review standards, without altering the integrity of the core indices.
All findings are governed by independent Count on Mothers research leadership and a Methodology Advisory Board of academic researchers at University College London, including Dr. Kaitlyn Regehr.
The Benchmark methodology is publicly documented and available for review.
Count on Mothers applies structural safeguards that protect credibility across all research engagements and all publicly released findings.
Full research autonomy retained by Count on Mothers
Sponsors do not influence methodology, analysis, or conclusions
Clear separation between funding and findings
Transparent disclosure of financial support
Fixed national sampling framework, consistent weighting protocols, and standardized reporting practices
The Benchmark's Methodology Advisory Board provides academic review and domain expertise on instrument design and the framing of findings within their respective fields. Sampling strategy, weighting, analytic approach, and methodological consistency across waves are governed by Count on Mothers' internal research leadership: Jennifer Brailsford PhD and Melissa Lawrence MPH. Visit our team page.
Count on Mothers operates independent, nationally representative research infrastructure grounded in mothers' lived experiences. Institutions engage in three structured ways — through institutional subscription, collaborative national studies, or tailored briefings and analysis. A Founding Member cohort joins during the Benchmark's inaugural phase.
Across all models, we maintain full research independence, transparent methodology, and rigorous national representation.
Recurring access to the National Benchmark of U.S. Mothers — the structured measurement framework institutions rely on for longitudinal visibility into maternal and family conditions.
Wave-over-wave findings across all five core indices
Methodology documentation and weighted data tables
Researcher briefings with the Count on Mothers team
Embargoed pre-release access ahead of public findings
Designed for institutions seeking consistent, decision-grade visibility into national maternal indicators over time.
Structured research aligned around a shared systems-level question, fielded alongside the Benchmark.
Clearly defined scope and methodology
Public-facing research with institutional acknowledgment, supported by launch briefings and a dissemination webinar
Structured alignment around measurable national indicators
Designed for institutions seeking deeper national insight on a specific question, while preserving the independence of findings.
Custom synthesis and executive briefings drawing on the Benchmark's national dataset and methodology, scoped to an institution's strategic questions.
Tailored interpretation of national findings for internal strategy and governance
Executive-level synthesis and live briefings
Optional confidential supplementary analysis
Designed for institutions seeking decision-grade interpretation of national data — not bespoke private research. The underlying data and methodology remain the public Benchmark.
Count on Mothers is convening an inaugural cohort of Founding Member institutions whose early support enables the National Benchmark to launch as durable, recurring research infrastructure.
Founding Members receive full institutional subscriber access plus benefits specific to the inaugural cohort: input on rotating supplemental module topics, recognition in Benchmark release materials, and locked-in founding terms. Founding membership does not confer influence over the core instrument, weighting, methodology, or findings.
Founding Member: Inseparable, Inc.
The Founding Member cohort is convened intentionally small. Enrollment is open through the public release of Wave 1 in June 2026. Institutions interested in joining are welcome to schedule a 30-minute conversation with Lauren Prentiss, Head of Strategy & Partnerships.
For institutions shaping systems that serve families at scale, maternal conditions and institutional trust aren't peripheral — they're foundational to system performance over time.
We welcome a conversation about how independent, nationally representative measurement can inform the decisions you're accountable for.
