This presentation will describe the evidence-based maternity care program of the Maternity Center Association (MCA). The goal of this national program is to improve the care provided to low-risk women and their newborns by making it more consistent with recommendations based on high-quality research. The program focuses especially on the critical and technology-intensive period of labor and birth. Recognition of the human and financial costs of inappropriate patterns of care helped give rise to the managed care era. Those with responsibility for care during pregnancy and birth are privileged to have access to a database of incomparable scope and quality for assessing the effectiveness and safety of many specific forms of maternity care. The Cochrane Collaboration's systematic reviews of care during pregnancy and birth clarify that patterns of maternity care in the U.S. involve troublesome errors of both commission and omission, as well as widespread confidence in care that has not been adequately assessed. MCA's new program will address the critical need to help childbearing women, maternity caregivers, and policymakers understand the evidence, to initiate effective strategies for closing the evidence-practice gap, and to seek answers to outstanding questions about the safety and effectiveness of maternity practices and the effectiveness of strategies for change. MCA will enhance the effectiveness of the this program by using established tools and principles for change, supporting and collaborating with many partners, taking advantage of opportunities for leverage within the managed care environment, building and maintaining an effective website, and making a long-term commitment.
Learning Objectives: Those who attend this presentation will be able to (1) understand the rationale for Maternity Center Association's new evidence-based maternity care program, (2) understand the goal and objectives of the evidence-based maternity care program, and (3) understand the approach that MCA is taking to address program goal and objectives
Keywords: Maternal Care, Evidence Based Practice
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Maternity Center Association
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: I am the executive director of Maternity Center Association