Maternal and Child Health Resource Repository

Fort Wayne, Ind.-based Parkview Health works to reduce infant mortality; Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut cares for the vulnerable and uninsured; and Greenville Health System in South Carolina makes great strides in preventing low birthweight and premature births.

Penn Medicine uses digital technology to help postpartum women take control of their blood pressure.

President Trump on Dec. 21 signed the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act (H.R. 1318), AHA-supported legislation that will provide funding for states to develop maternal mortality review committees to better understand maternal complications and identify solutions.

Adventist Health White Memorial is connecting pregnant women and mothers who live in poverty to the resources and care they need to best support their children; four Detroit hospitals and health systems created a task force to dramatically reduce the region’s infant mortality rate; and The Northern New England Perinatal Quality Improvement Network brings together a vast assortment of knowledge across disciplines to advance perinatal care.

The Senate yesterday passed and sent to the president for his signature AHA-supported legislation that would provide funding for states to develop maternal mortality review committees to better understand maternal complications and identify solutions.

The House of Representatives today passed AHA-supported legislation (H.R. 1318) that would provide funding for states to develop maternal mortality review committees to better understand maternal complications and identify solutions.

AHA letter to Speaker Ryan and Minority Leader Pelosi expressing strong support for House passage of H.R.1318, the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act.

Parkview Hospital is one of the oldest – and only remaining – nonprofit hospitals in northeast Indiana. Parkview has a long history of community engagement based on reaching out and collaborating with community leaders and nonprofit agencies to deliver services, increase access, and address the social determinants of health. The Maternal and Infant Outreach initiative is offered in partnership with multiple social services agencies aimed at reducing infant mortality by providing resources to expectant and new mothers, including Healthy Families, Associated Churches, A Hope Pregnancy Center, Beds and Britches, Etc., SCAN, and the Neighborhood Health Clinic.

The Welcome Baby Program is part of a community network of programs that work together to provide supportive services to families with newborns.

Overview About eight out of 1,000 babies born in Delaware die before their first birthday, compared with a national rate of about six out of 1,000.

The birth of a child is and should be among the happiest events in a woman’s life. And hospitals and clinicians seek to partner with women to create and carry out birth plans that respect their wishes for this special time. As a nurse who has cared for women in labor, I know how important it is for the patient to be heard and be an active participant in her care.

AHA today joined more than 80 organizations in urging House and Senate leaders to bring H.R. 1318/S. 1112 to the floor for a vote before yearend. The AHA-supported legislation would provide federal funding for states to develop maternal mortality review committees to better understand maternal complications and identify solutions.

AHA letter to Congressional leadership expressing support to advance legislation – H.R. 1318/S. 1112  to reduce maternal mortality in the United States.  See details below.

Sixteen years ago, Victoria Flanagan, R.N., M.S., and Michele Lauria, M.D., M.S., became increasingly alarmed as provider after provider closed vaginal-birth-after-a-caesarean (VBAC) programs across northern New England. Today, NNEPQIN consists of 43 organizations throughout New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine involved in perinatal care, including hospitals, state health departments, professional midwifery organizations, and the March of Dimes.

In 2001, a Samaritan Health Services (SHS) physician, Dr. Richard Wopat, recognized the need to improve birth outcomes of high-risk pregnant women in the region. In collaboration with various community and state partners, he started a pilot program in 2002 at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center to ensure that the most vulnerable pregnant women had access to care and to screenings for special issues including medical, obstetrical, and psychosocial concerns. Today, the Samaritan Maternity Connection (MC) program is now implemented at all five of the SHS hospitals and the three county health departments.

Mothers and infants enrolled in the Strong Start birth centers model had $2,010 lower costs on average, 25 percent lower preterm birth rates and better birth outcomes than other comparable women enrolled in Medicaid.

Learning how leading hospitals and health systems are creating change and improving maternal health and mothers experience is an important way to move the country forward on national maternal safety and quality goals. Providence St. Joseph Health works as a system and regionally on continued obstetric quality improvement and has positive results to share.

Jay Bhatt, DO, AHA senior vice president and chief medical officer, will welcome Neel Shah, MD, MPP, a nationally recognized expert on the complex challenges facing hospitals and health systems as we commit to reducing risks for mothers and babies throughout pregnancy.

An innovative patient centered maternity care model leveraging technology and enabling clinicians to drive better pregnancy outcomes for women with chronic hypertension earned Penn Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Health System, a top award in the 2018 AHA Innovation Challenge. Adi Hirshberg, MD, co-founder Heart Safe Motherhood and Assistant Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania, will present this model engaging, monitoring, and managing high risk patients from hospital admission, through delivery and after they have returned home postpartum.

AHA hosted this webinar, the first in a series of webinars on improving maternal health and reducing maternal mortality, on November 13, 2018. Patricia M. Witcher, MSN, RNC-OB, clinical outcomes manager of Northside Hospital in Atlanta – a large provider of obstetric services with nearly 17,000 babies born at the hospital each year – discussed state and national quality initiatives, including the Maternal Mortality Review Committee, and shared maternal safety processes and practices.