Learn more about maternal mortality through these websites and articles.

Websites

Review to Action Maternal Mortality

Review to Action Maternal Mortality: Review to Action promotes the maternal mortality review process as the best way to understand why maternal mortality in the United States is increasing and prioritize interventions to improve maternal health.

Review to Action, Reports from Maternal Mortality Review Committees 

Review to Action, Reports from Maternal Mortality Review Committees: Two reports, Reports from MMRCs: A View into Their Critical Role and Report from Nine MMRCs, both of which Ohio contributed.  

Enhancing Reviews and Surveillance to Eliminate Maternal Mortality (ERASE MM)

Enhancing Reviews and Surveillance to Eliminate Maternal Mortality (ERASE MM): CDC has made 24 awards, supporting 25 states for the Enhancing Reviews and Surveillance to Eliminate Maternal Mortality (ERASE MM) Program. This funding directly supports agencies and organizations that coordinate and manage Maternal Mortality Review Committees to identify, review, and characterize maternal deaths; and identify prevention opportunities.

Rapid Maternal Overdose Review (RMOR)

Rapid Maternal Overdose Review (RMOR): RMOR supports six Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRCs), including Ohio PAMR, to review all pregnancy-associated overdose deaths in their state.

Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health

Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM): is a national data-driven maternal safety and quality improvement initiative. Based on proven safety and quality implementation strategies, AIM works to reduce preventable maternal mortality and severe morbidity across the United States. AIM works through state and community-based teams to align national, state, and hospital level quality improvement efforts to improve overall maternal health outcomes.

Council on Patient Safety in Women's Healthcare

Council on Patient Safety in Women's Healthcare: The Council on Patient Safety in Women’s Health Care disseminates patient safety bundles to help reduce variation and facilitate the standardization process. A concept introduced by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, our patient safety bundles are built upon established best-practices and designed to be universally implementable.

Healthy Women, Health Pregnancies, Healthy Future: HRSA Action Plan to Improve Maternal Health in America

Healthy Women, Health Pregnancies, Healthy Future: HRSA Action Plan to Improve Maternal Health in America:  This plan lays out actions for the Department of Health and Human Services and our partners to execute on: improving prevention and treatment, prioritizing quality improvement, optimizing prenatal and postpartum health, and improving data and bolstering research to inform future interventions. In a modern healthcare system, pregnancy-related deaths should never occur. This action plan gets us on the path to making maternal mortality a “never” event. With these steps, we can achieve our ambitious goals, reduce the unacceptable disparities that burden so many, and deliver a healthier, safer country for all women.

The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Improve Maternal Health

The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Improve Maternal Health: Calls to Action by the United States Surgeon General are a rare step, reserved for the most serious public health crises facing all Americans. Maternal morbidity and mortality is a crisis, and has been for far too long. Taking action together, we can help all women set a course for health before, during, and after pregnancy, ensuring healthy futures for both our mothers and children.

Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center (MHLIC)

Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center (MHLIC): The mission of the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center (MHLIC) is to foster collaboration and learning among diverse stakeholders to accelerate evidence-informed interventions advancing equitable maternal health outcomes through engagement, innovation, and policy. The Center’s central goal is to provide a continuum of learning opportunities that enhance the capacity of all maternal health practitioners across the country.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) HEAR HER Campaign 

CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health is committed to healthy pregnancies and deliveries for every woman. The Hear Her campaign supports CDC's efforts to prevent pregnancy-related deaths by sharing potentially life-saving messages about urgent warning signs.

Articles

Data Validity

Catalano A, Davis NL, Petersen EE, et al. (2020, March). Pregnant? Validity of the pregnancy checkbox on death certificates in four states, and characteristics associated with pregnancy checkbox errors. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 222(3), 269.e1-269.e8.

Quality Improvement

Conrey EJ, Manning SE, Shellhaas CS, et al. (2019, August). Severe Maternal Morbidity, A Tale of 2 States Using Data for Action—Ohio and Massachusetts. Maternal and Child Health. 23(8), 989–995.*

D’Alton ME, Friedman AM, Bernstein PS, et al. (2019, October). Putting the “M” back in maternal-fetal medicine: A 5-year report card on a collaborative effort to address maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 221(4), 311-317.

Eliason EL. (2020, February 25). Adoption of Medicaid expansion is associated with lower maternal mortality. Women's Health Issues.

Main EK, Markow C, Gould J. (2018, September). Addressing maternal mortality and morbidity in California through public-private partnerships. Health Affairs. 37(9), 1484-1493. 

* This article discusses Ohio-specific information

Maternal Mortality Review Process

Berg CJ, Harper MA, Atkinson SM, et al. (2005, December). Preventability of pregnancy-related deaths: results of a state-wide review. Obstetrics and Gynecology. 106(6), 1228-1234.

Main EK. (2012, February). Decisions required for operating a maternal mortality review committee: the California experience. Seminars in Perinatology. 36(1), 37-41.

Metz TD, Rovner P, Hoffman MC, Allshouse AA, Beckwith KM, Binswanger IA. (2016, December). Maternal deaths from suicide and overdose in Colorado, 2004–2012. Obstetrics and Gynecology. 128(6), 1233-1240. 

Shellhaas CS, and Conrey EJ. (2018, June). State-based review of maternal deaths: The Ohio experience. Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology, 61(2), 332-339*. 

Shellhaas CS, Zaharatos J, Clayton L, Hameed AB. (2019, July). Examination of a death due to cardiomyopathy by a maternal mortality review committee. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 221(1), 1-8.*

St. Pierre A, Zaharatos J, Goodman D, Callaghan WM. (2018, January). Challenges and opportunities in identifying, reviewing, and preventing maternal deaths. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 131(1), 138-142.

Zaharatos J, St. Pierre A, Cornell A, Pasalic E, Goodman D. (2018, January). Building U.S. capacity to review and prevent maternal deaths. Journal of Women’s Health, 27(1), 1-5.

* This article discusses Ohio-specific information

Equity

Callaghan WM. (2020, February). Maternal mortality: addressing disparities and measuring what we value. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 135(2), 274-275. 

Kramer MR, Strahan AE, Preslar J, Zaharatos J, St Pierre A, Grant JE, Davis NL, Goodman DA, Callaghan WM. (2019, December). Changing the conversation: Applying a health equity framework to maternal mortality reviews. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, 221(6), 609.e1-609.e9.

Kieltyka L, Bachhuber MA, Smiles D, Wallace M, Zapata A, Gee RE. (2020, February). Racial inequities in preventable pregnancy-related deaths in Louisiana, 2011–2016. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 135(2), 276-283.  

Wang E, Glazer KB, Howell EA, Janevic TM. (2020, April). Social determinants of pregnancy-related mortality and morbidity in the United States: a systematic review. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 135(4), 896-915.