Four renowned leaders in maternal and child health will make up an eminent panel for the 2007 Martha May Eliot Forum at the APHA 135th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Nov.  6 at 2:30 p.m. The session will be moderated by Diony Young, editor of the journal Birth.  The panel is entitled:  Everyone Knows the Health Care System is Broken. How Do We Fix It? Access Beyond Health Insurance: The Politics and Policy of Maternal Child Health (Session 4239.0).

Each panel member brings an extraordinary wealth of experience and work in improving maternity care, for which they have been recognized and honored as former recipients of the Martha May Eliot Award. They are:

·         Eunice K.M. “Kitty”Ernst, CNM, MPH, Sc(Hon)  (1981).

·         Judith Rooks, CNM, MPH, MSc  (1993).

·         Charles Mahan, MD (2004).

·         Ruth Lubic, RN, CNM, EdD (2006).

The award is named for Dr. Martha May Eliot (1891-1978), whose remarkable career spanned four decades in the federal Children’s Bureau, where she served as Chief from 1951 to 1956. Dr. Eliot was also the first woman to be elected APHA president (in 1947).

Panel members will discuss policy and political factors that affect childbirth in North America today. Primary concerns include emphasis on the development of the family, how to retain normal childbirth in the face of a Caesarean section epidemic, how to improve quality of care and reduce costs while meeting the needs of the childbearing public, balancing high-tech and high-touch preventive health care, and examining models of care that empower women and provide them and their families with choice, access and quality in maternity care.

Health professionals and public health workers in maternal and child health are strongly urged to attend this special Forum and gain inspiration and knowledge from these four trailblazers in maternity care. With such a cast of speakers, it will be a memorable occasion.