Title: Innovations in Maternity Health Services
Author:
Section/SPIG: Maternal and Child Health
Issue Date:
The Innovations in Maternity Health Services Committee has just finished putting together this year’s Annual Meeting program. While the program has been a worthwhile endeavor, we as individual providers have been dealing with massive cuts of public health programs. In Tennessee, where two of the co-chairs reside, the population of the state is facing the loss of publicly funded health insurance for more than 300,000 people. This will not directly affect pregnant women or children younger than 21, but has a serious impact on women’s health.
This year’s convention program is planned to highlight the issues in malpractice coverage. “Who’s Left to Deliver the Baby?” will be held on Monday, Nov. 7, 2005 from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. Charles Mahan has agreed to be the moderator for this session. We have several presenters looking at the issues of who is delivering and what the barriers exist to receiving adequate maternity care. The business meeting for the committee will follow this session.
The mission of the Innovations Committee is to raise the “hard” questions in childbirth. Why do we do this? Is it necessary? Is it mother and child friendly? Does it help better outcomes? The continued growth of technology has caused loss of control by childbearing families of their birth options. At this time, however, the basic fabric of childbirth may be threatened as the number of actual providers shrinks in the face of staggering increases in malpractice insurance.
Beyond the topic for the Annual Meeting, issues regarding access to and quality of maternity services need to be addressed. The committee will be working with the overall section to plan a strategic approach to these overwhelming concerns. An online survey of access problems as well as malpractice insurance increases is being considered. The loss of federal Maternal and Child Health Funding will only make these problems more difficult in each state.
In other news, the CPM Statistics Project has written an article based on data from 5,000 labors which will be coming out in the British Medical Journal. We will publish the reference in the next newsletter.
Comments, questions, concerns? E-mail Barb Levin at <BarbL11@aol.com> or Carole Nelson at <cpmcnel@usit.net>. Thanks to committee members for their time and the effort.