ARPA-H has committed $90.7 million over four years under its Making Obstetrics Care Smart (MOCS) program to accelerate diagnostic tests and fetal monitoring tools aimed at improving childbirth safety. Funding begins June 16, including $34 million in year one, with a focus on identifying patients at high risk for fetal oxygen deprivation (fetal hypoxia) before and during delivery. Projects include a point-of-care (POC) blood test being developed by a University of California San Diego team led by Louise Laurent. The approach uses fetal and maternal proteins, nucleic acids, and extracellular vesicles, with Sera Prognostics and Allegro MicroSystems named as commercial collaborators. Separately, the Wyss Institute at Harvard, led by Jim Collins, is set to develop FEMOX (fetal extracellular vesicle-based monitoring of oxygenation), using a microfluidic POC device to capture extracellular vesicles and assess fetal oxygenation risk via mRNA profiling. A University of North Carolina at Charlotte team is also working on an autonomous wearable ultrasound concept to evaluate placental health during labor without a specialized technician. ARPA-H’s package also includes noninvasive, wireless monitoring efforts integrating fetal heart-rate tracking, contraction monitoring, and AI/ML to provide real-time, objective measures during labor.