The Maternity Quality Matters Initiative, which focuses on impacting maternity care policy at the federal and state levels and within organizations, health plans, and hospitals.



New Mothers Speak Out: National Survey Results Highlight Women's Postpartum Experiences, a report based on data from our national Listening to Mothers surveys, which highlights the social, emotional, and physical health and workplace challenges many new mothers face. The report received extensive media coverage thanks to a Wall Street Journal article by reporter Rachel Zimmerman.


Evidence-Based Maternity Care: What It Is and What It Can Achieve, a report that takes stock of the U.S. maternity care system and presents policy recommendations for improving maternity care. The report was developed by Childbirth Connection, the Reforming States Group, and the Milbank Memorial Fund and received widespread coverage, including articles by Rita Rubin in USA Today and a Consumer Reports website article and true-false quiz.

* Participation as co-chair of the National Quality Forum's Perinatal Care Performance Measures Steering Committee, which endorsed 17 perinatal consensus standards to measure the care received by mothers and babies from the third trimester of pregnancy through discharge from a hospital or birth center. These standards provide information consumers can use to compare providers and birth settings, purchasers can use to reward high performers, facilities, clinicians can use to improve practice, and policymakers can use to identify opportunities for policy intervention.

* Inclusion on several national advisory committees of prestigious organizations working to improve health care quality, including the Patient Consumer Advisory Panel of the Center for Medical Policy Technology, the Steering Committee of the Guidelines International Network's Working Group on Patient and Public Involvement, and the Consumer Advisory Council of the National Committee for Quality Assurance. Staff also continued their involvement as Vice Chair of the National Quality Forum's Consumer Council, Consumer Coordinator for North America of the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group, member of the Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project of the National Partnership for Women and Families, and Steering Committee member of Consumers United for Evidence-Based Healthcare and Raising Women's Voices for the Health Care We Need.

* A landmark policy symposium, Transforming Maternity Care: A High Value Proposition, to be held on April 3, 2009 in Washington DC. Childbirth Connection is engaging close to 100 accomplished quality leaders from across the health care system in our preparations for this event. The symposium will produce a Blueprint for Action to improve the structure, process, and outcomes of care for mothers and babies.