Our Maternity Action Plan gathering last week brought together more than 120 people, all committed to making New Jersey the safest, most equitable place to give birth and raise a child. The range of attendees enabled doulas to converse with state health officials; midwives to chat with a medical school dean; community health workers to engage with program officers at philanthropies.

 

People involved in all areas of maternal child health in New Jersey joined us for this day-long culmination of a year’s work on the Maternity Action Plan (MAP), a strategic plan to support Nurture NJ implementation. Our expert speakers shared the latest on specific topics:

 

• The new Maternal Infant Health Innovation Authority (MIHIA)
• The New Jersey Department of Health’s Maternal Data Dashboard
• Collecting Race, Ethnicity and Language data
• TeamBirth and Shared Decision-making to Improve Communications and Equitable Birth Outcomes
• Expanding and Integrating Midwifery Education and Training
• Eliminating Stigma around Substance Use Disorders in Maternal Health

 

Recognizing the value of encouraging connections, during lunch we gave those who attended the choice of 15 smaller, focused conversations to join. Tables were led by people directly engaged in programs, mostly at the community level, including transportation resources; engaging fathers; preventing preeclampsia; protecting civil rights; creating LGBTQ+ affirming spaces, and employment benefits, among others.

 

Attendees also heard from New Jersey Health Commissioner Kaitlyn Baston, who spoke on the value of finally adopting an integrated facility license to reduce the bureaucracy for providers who want to offer integrated care including primary care, mental health, and substance use disorder treatment. And we heard from lawmakers and other leaders:

 

• Lisa Asare, CEO, Maternal Infant Health Innovation Authority
• Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz
• Assembly Budget Committee Chair Eliana Pintor Marin
• Assistant Commissioner Greg Woods, New Jersey Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services
• Barbara George Johnson, Chair, Maternal Infant Health Innovation Authority Board
• Nadia Laniyan, Health Legislative Assistant, Office of U.S. Sen. Cory Booker

 

These leaders shared their plans to make sure work to improve maternal child outcomes is engrained into laws — and that maternal child health and birth equity remains a top priority in New Jersey.

 

At the Quality Institute, we know our partners and members are committed to continuing this mission with us. Mark your calendars now for the upcoming virtual MAP education sessions we are planning for 2025:  Tuesday, January 28; Wednesday, April 2; Wednesday, June 1. I’m eager to hear what ideas and issues you want us to cover and who you’d especially like to hear from. We already received some excellent suggestions from our conference survey, but welcome additional feedback.

 

Finally, I want to share some of the observations from people who attended. Their words provide great insight, not just on our conference but also on the interesting, innovative, and essential work happening in our state right now to improve maternal child outcomes:

 

Kaitlan Baston, MD, MSc, DFASAM, Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Health. Dr. Baston provided closing remarks.

 

“Interdisciplinary thinking is necessary to break down silos and start solving problems together. Maternal child health is multi-sector. The two messages I want people to take home today is, one, that substance use disorder is the number one cause of pregnancy associated mortality. And the second is that integrated care must be the central way that we provide maternal-child care.

 

Carolyn Flynn, LPC, CD, IMH-E®

Director, Infant and Early Childhood Relational Health

The Center for Great Expectations

 

“The MAP is so valuable to our work, and gatherings like this one are very helpful. We provide a full continuum of care for pregnant and parenting mothers and their children affected by trauma and substance use disorders. Mental health is the number one cause of pregnancy-related mortality, and substance use disorder is part of that. We need to center mental health in our planning and in our actions toward eliminating disparities in maternal mortality. So, gatherings like this are great. All the people I see here today are invested in moving this work forward, and I am honored to be a part of the process.”

 

Mehnaz Mustafa MPH MSc, Executive Director, Data and Analytics, New Jersey Department of Health

 

“My team is responsible for the New Jersey Maternal Data Center. Conferences like this allow me and my team to get the perspective, not just of providers, but also from the organizations embedded in communities. We are in the process of creating a public facing dashboard and story maps that can provide important and useful information for the average birthing person. Part of our workshop at the MAP conference was to get the thoughts of participants on what data would be the most valuable. This conference is great for us.”

 

Amy Murtha, Dean, Rutgers Medical School

“I was the founding Medical Director of the Duke Midwifery Program and supported a well-developed midwifery program at UCSF.  Since I came to New Jersey two years ago I have been thinking about midwifery care here. I’m surprised we don’t have more midwifery care. My sense as an ob-gyn and maternal fetal medicine specialist is that there are opportunities for physicians to more deeply understand and appreciate the contributions midwifes have to clinical care — as well as to medical education.

 

In my experience, ob-gyns who receive training by midwives share how critical those experiences were to their training. If you ask, these physicians will tell you the most impactful part of their training was learning from and with midwives. It’s the humanistic touch. The MAP conference is an important opportunity for me to understand the landscape and to share my thoughts.”

 

Brandie Wooding, MSN, RN, RNC-OB, program director of Universal Home Visiting of New Jersey, Department of Children and Families.

 

“These sessions are invaluable to share not just experiences but opportunities. You can see who you can partner with and understand how everybody is connected. I think you need stakeholders at every level — government, community organization, people with lived experiences — to create better outcomes. … I love hearing from our nurses who are visiting families and catching things before they become serious problems, such as high blood pressure, low birthweight of babies, moms who need mental health support. We are working on pulling the data together to understand the impact.

 

Pamela Winkler Tew

HealthySteps, a program of ZERO TO THREE

 

“HealthySteps does not exist in a vacuum. Our work is connected to the entire maternal child health service continuum. We all need to be connected at the policy level, on the community level … and all be involved in the payment conversation.  We all need to be rowing in the same direction. And from a personal perspective, I find that I can accomplish in one day at the MAP conference what it takes me a month to accomplish through emails. You can just go tap someone on the shoulder if you want to talk.”

 

Pamela Brug, MD, MS, Medical Director, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield

 

“Events like this are important. They not only allow for networking, but also to get updated on what’s happening in the state and to see opportunities where we can move forward and have impact.”

 

Tara Norman, Planned Parenthood of Northern, Central, and Southern NJ. She hosted a lunch table on the organization’s doula grant access project, which provides funding to cover the costs of doulas when the doula and pregnant individual both identify as Black.

 

“I love the MAP session. We are hearing from everyone doing this work and learning how we can collaborate further. Our organization focuses on sexual and reproductive health. We are not a maternal health organization. Our role is to be a strong partner and ally, believing that change comes through partnerships with those providing direct care and grass roots leaders and community advocates and educators working directly with Black moms.”