Improving Pregnancy Outcomes Committee
Greetings from the Improving Pregnancy Outcomes (IPO) Committee! We are pleased to report that the IPO Committee had a very successful set of events at the APHA Annual Meeting in Boston. Here are the highlights:
1. Committee Meeting: We were happy to see some new faces at our business meeting, including both hospital and community--based health professionals interested in addressing birth outcomes. The IPO Committee always welcomes new members-come join us! We spent the bulk of the meeting discussing our position paper, Reducing Racial/Ethnic and Socioeconomic Disparities in Preterm Births: A Call to Action (see below), and inviting attendees to support its passage at the public hearings
2. Podium and Poster Sessions: From the many quality abstract submissions we received for our 2006 program, we organized two oral sessions and two poster sessions, all of which were very well attended. More importantly, the presentations were excellent, prompting numerous questions and comments from the audience. Many people expressed an interest in the IPO Committee, so we now have several new names added to our e-mail list.
3. Position Paper #20062, Reducing Racial/Ethnic Disparities and Socioeconomic Disparities in Preterm Births: This position paper was endorsed by our Section at the MCH Mid-Year meeting in March and was revised and resubmitted to the Joint Policy Committee in June 2006. Public hearings were held at the Annual Meeting, and we received support from all of the sections with representatives present, with some minor revisions being recommended by the Epidemiology and Statistics sections. The position paper was one of 22 policies passed by the Governing Council at the Annual Meeting. We are very excited to have a role in creating APHA policy! We are grateful to the many authors and the MCH leadership and membership for their support and assistance in getting the position paper submitted and revised. The final version of the position paper is available online at http://www.apha.org/advocacy/policy/policysearch/default.htm?id=1326.
4. A New Co-Chair: Our MCH Fellow from the 2005 Annual Meeting, Janine Lewis, has continued to work with IPO leadership in reviewing abstracts and helping to write the IPO position paper mentioned above. She has agreed to sign on as an official co-chair to the IPO Committee. Congratulations, Janine!
The Improving Pregnancy Outcomes Committee is an active group within the Maternal and Child Health Section. We welcome your participation and input. If you would like to become a member, please e-mail one of us!
With warmest regards from your co-chairs,
Judith Katzburg Tyan Parker Dominguez Janine Lewis
jkatzbur@ucla.edu tyanpark@usc.edu jlewis6@gmail.com
Innovations In Maternity Health Services Committee
The Innovations in Maternity Care Committee continues to explore the growing crisis in the provision of maternity services in the United States. The committee, a working coalition of certified nurse midwives, certified professional midwives, physicians, and other maternal and child health advocates, is focused on the problems of access to care experienced by pregnant women across the country due to provider shortages, difficulties with malpractice, and facilities which are closing obstetrical units because of financial problems. The magnitude of the lack of care is yet to be calculated, and benign neglect seems to be the overwhelming policy.
The Innovations Committee is beginning a year-long effort to describe the problems of access to maternity care, both in quantitative and qualitative terms. Each state affiliate will be asked to assess access issues. At present, there is no national plan for dealing with this essential problem, and the first step to developing one is to assemble data on the issue. This process began in Boston at the 134th Annual Meeting of APHA.
The committee also sponsored four sessions this year, which were all well attended. They were:
· Developing Local and National Policies to Assure Access to Comprehensive Maternity Care: Joanne Myers-Ceiko, Holly Kennedy, Ken Johnson, Betty Anne Daviss, and Dr. Barbara Levin.
· Options for Childbirth: A Fundamental Woman's Right: Saraswathi Vedam, Ken Johnson, Betty Anne Daviss, and Heather Davidson.
· Interesting Technology in Four Areas of Public Health: In a Technology Theater Session, Bruce Ackerman and Ellen Harris-Braun presented the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) Database, an innovative Web-based system used for prospective collection of perinatal data.
· Women's Choices in Childbirth: Access to Care:
o The Myth of the Maternal Request for Cesarean: Exploring Mothers Attitudes Toward Cesarean Birth: Eugene DeClerk.
o White Ribbon Alliance: Women and Infants Service Package (WISP): Planning for Emergencies: Lisa Sommers.
o The Case Against Elective Primary Cesarean Surgery: Henci Goer.
Although the theme of the 2007 Annual Meeting Nov. 3-10 in Washington, D.C. is “Politics, Policy and Public Health,” the theme for our committee continues to be access to care. In 2007 we face increasing problems in access to maternity care, and we are looking for papers on provider shortages, increasing malpractice insurance costs, and decreasing consumer insurance coverage with loss of consumer options. We are also looking for research descriptions of programs or legislation which encourage birth options for women and childbearing families, choices, as well as creative solutions, to address access to care, including midwives, out of hospital birth settings, doulas, and water birth. At the same time, we are interested in research into standard obstetrical care, including inductions, elective cesarean sections, electro-fetal monitoring, and delivery positions. How birth is portrayed in the media is also important. It is essential to address the politics, policies, and ethics of these issues on the local, state or nation levels. Recently, Section Chair Barb Levin met with Ruth Lubic and representatives of the American Association of Birth Centers and the American College of Nurse Midwives at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C. to discuss the development of legislation in this area of access.
Please consider joining the Committee in its efforts to support women and their families in accessing appropriate maternity care; the need to assure such access is fundamental to public health. To join, contact Barbara Levin at barbl11@aol.com.