272517 National partnerships in an initiative to eliminate non-medically indicated (elective) deliveries

Monday, October 29, 2012 : 9:30 AM - 9:50 AM

Scott Berns, MD, MPH , Chapter Programs, March of Dimes, White Plains, NY
     
The goal of the March of Dimes National Prematurity Campaign is to reduce premature births. A key element of the campaign is to eliminate or reduce non-medically indications deliveries before 39 weeks gestational age, otherwise known as early elective deliveries.

Implementation of core components of the campaign includes the vital role of local and national partnerships. For example, the California March of Dimes Chapter, the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative, and the California Department of Public Health collaborated to develop and disseminate the toolkit, “Elimination of Non-Medically Indicated (Elective) Deliveries Before 39 Weeks Gestational Age”.

Two key national public health-related partnerships are the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials' (ASTHO) Healthy Babies Project and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) “Strong Start” Initiative. In a joint appeal the March of Dimes and ASTHO invited states to set a goal of reducing state premature birth rates by 8 percent by 2014 along with initiating and supporting programs that reduce premature birth, including eliminating early elective deliveries. In early in 2012, HHS announced the “Strong Start” Initiative “to reduce preterm births and improve outcomes for newborns and pregnant women”. This initiative includes partnership with the March of Dimes to raise awareness and spread the adoption of evidence-based practices that can reduce early elective deliveries. A major national public awareness campaign will begin in November 2012.

Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Clinical medicine applied in public health
Program planning
Public health administration or related administration
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
• Explain the role of national partnerships in the Prematurity Campaign being led by the national March of Dimes • Describe the partnership between the March of Dimes and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials • Describe the partnership between the March of Dimes and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Keywords: Maternal and Child Health, Birth Outcomes

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Berns is Deputy Medical Director and Senior Vice President, Chapter Programs, at the March of Dimes and Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Brown University Alpert Medical School. He received his BA and MD from Boston University, completed pediatric residency at Rhode Island Hospital and pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC, earned a MPH at Harvard. Before joining the March of Dimes in 2001, he completed a White House Fellowship.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3050.0: Partnerships in Reducing Early Elective Deliveries