[3] Meigs was educated at Keokuk High School,[4] before attending Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, where she participated in collegiate athletics.
[9] In 1915, Meigs was recruited by Julia Lathrop, chief of the Children's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, to become the first director of the Child Hygiene Division.
[12] Her research found that women's deaths from pregnancy and childbirth-related issues had not decreased in the years between 1890 and 1913, a finding counter to the prevailing opinion of physicians at the time.
[13] Meigs' 1917 report on maternal mortality was influential in the US, and led to the development of services for pregnant women and nursing mothers, the increased establishment of obstetric facilities, and the passing of the Sheppard–Towner Act.
[16] Meigs continued as Director of the Division of Hygiene until July 15, 1918,[1] a few months prior to her marriage on September 9, 1918, to Thomas Reid Crowder, a fellow physician,[17][18] in Keokuk, Iowa.