creative commons licensed (BY-NC-SA) flickr photo by Insight Imaging: John A Ryan Photography:http://flickr.com/photos/insightimaging/3709268648

Earlier this week, I shared information on the Safety Action Series kickoff that all were invited to participate in, by the National Partnership for Maternal Safety focused on reducing the maternal mortality ratio and morbidity ratio for mothers birthing in the U.S. This partnership is part of the Council on Patient Safety in Women's Health Care. Last month Christine Morton, PhD and Robin Weiss, MPH attended a meeting as board members of Lamaze International. Christine shares meeting notes and topics that were discussed and what maternity professionals, including childbirth educators, can do to help. - Sharon Muza, Science & Sensibility Community Manager.

Disclosure: Christine is a member of the Patient/Family Support Workgroup of the National Partnership for Maternal Safety, and a current board member of Lamaze International.

Since 1986, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) convened interested persons in public health, obstetrics and maternity care to discuss and share information about maternal mortality, including methodologies for pregnancy mortality surveillance at state and national levels, and opportunities to reduce preventable maternal deaths. Recently, under leadership of Dr. Elliott Main, medical director of California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC), and drawing from the recent experience of California in maternal quality improvement and work by other organizations and collaboratives, the focus of the interest group has shifted from surveillance to quality improvement. The meeting has evolved from the early years when 12-20 persons sat around tables to discuss the issue, to this year's meeting which had over 180 persons registered. Clearly the time has come for a coalition around improving maternity outcomes in the U.S.

The National Partnership for Maternal Safety was proposed in 2013 in New Orleans, and the goal of the April 27, 2014 meeting in Chicago was to formally launch the initiative and report on the progress of each work group. The goal of the National Partnership for Maternal Safety is for every birthing facility in the United States to have the three designated core Patient Safety Bundles (Hemorrhage; Venous Thromboembolus Prevention; and Preeclampsia) implemented within their facility within three years. The bundles will be rolled out consecutively, beginning with obstetric hemorrhage and advancing to the other areas. To support this national effort, publications are underway in peer-reviewed journals. The first article, as an editorial call to action, appears in the October 2013 issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the official publication of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Highlights from this year's meeting included two presentations from CDC researchers William Callaghan, MD, MPH and Andreea Creanga, MD, PhD, on work being done to better identify cases of severe maternal morbidity (SMM) and drivers of racial/ethnic disparities. One of the goals of creating a working definition of SMM is to help facilities track and review cases in order to identify systems issues and address them through quality improvement efforts.

Next, representatives from selected work groups (Hemorrhage; Venous Thromboembolus Prevention; Patient/Family Support) shared their updates. It has become very clear from ongoing work within large hospital systems, state-based quality collaboratives and other countries such as the UK, that standardized protocols for recognition and response to preventable causes of mortality and morbidity are effective. Unfortunately, there is no national requirement for all birthing facilities (hospitals and birth centers) to have updated policies and protocols on these preventable causes of maternal complications.

The good news is that there is a groundswell of support for a coordinated effort to realize the goals of the Initiative. From state quality collaboratives in California, New York, Ohio and Florida to Hospital Engagement Networks, there are many hospitals already implementing some maternal quality improvement toolkits. The Joint Commission plays a key role in helping hospitals work on patient safety issues and identified maternal mortality as a sentinel event in 2010 and is now proposing that any intrapartum (related to the birth process) maternal death or severe maternal morbidity should be reviewed. As the nation's largest accreditation body for hospitals, the Joint Commission is in a position to provide oversight as well as guidance to hospitals as they develop system-level reviews of these outcomes.

More states are being supported by federal and nonprofit agencies to develop and conduct maternal mortality reviews, and the role of Title V, the only federal program that focuses solely on improving the health of mothers and children, is critical. Title V is administered by each state to support programs enhancing the well being of mothers and their children.

The last topics of the day were how to address the most common cause of maternal mortality - cardiovascular disease in pregnancy - but not as preventable as the three causes featured in the Initiative.

Suggested topics for future meetings including looking at maternal mortalities due to suicide, helping states with small populations aggregate their data, and addressing the issue of prescription (and other) drug abuse among pregnant women. Eleni Tsigas from the Preeclampsia Foundation stressed the importance of including women's perspectives and the emotional, social and ongoing physical sequelae of living after a severely complicated childbirth experience.

How is this information relevant for childbirth educators, doulas and other maternity professionals? First, the rising rates of maternal mortality and morbidity are in the news. While deaths are rare, severe complications are more common. CBEs and doulas can reassure pregnant women in their classes that the likelihood of a severe morbidity is low, and can provide resources to share with women and help them learn which hospitals in their communities have begun the work of maternal quality improvement. CBEs can share this information with key nursing and medical leaders at hospitals where they teach, and offer to help with the Quality Improvment (QI) efforts.

Childbirth educators and others can help ensure the focus not become too one sided while it is important for every hospital to be ready for typical obstetric emergencies, it is also important for every hospital to be prepared to support women through normal physiologic birth by trained staff and supportive physicians. AWHONN launched its campaign, 'Go the full 40' in January 2012 to help everyone remember that while we don't want to ELECTIVELY deliver babies prior to 39 completed weeks gestation, we also want to support labor starting on its own. And most recently, ACNM unveiled its BirthTOOLs site, which includes resources, tools and improvement stories on supporting physiologic, vaginal births. CBEs and doulas can be strong advocates in supporting facility and maternity clinician preparedness for the 'worst case' and 'best case' scenarios in childbirth.

For more info about National Partnership for Maternal Safety or the CDC/ACOG Maternal Mortality Interest Group, please contact: Jeanne Mahoney, jmahoney@acog.org

Past and future webinars about the initiative are available to the public here: http://www.safehealthcareforeverywoman.org/safety-action-series.html

Archived presentations from past CDC/ACOG maternal mortality interest group meetings

2014: http://bit.ly/1sXkaGw

2012: http://bit.ly/1pfay9S

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