Addressing Racial Disparities in the Hypertensive Disorders in Pregnancy: A Plan for Action from the Preeclampsia Foundation's Racial Disparities Task Force.

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are among the leading causes of maternal mortality in the United States, with Black women and birthing people disproportionately having higher HDP-related deaths and morbidity. In 2020, the Preeclampsia Foundation formed a national Racial Disparities Task Force (RDTF) to identify key recommendations to address issues of racial disparities related to HDP. Recommendations are centered around the Foundation's three pillars: Community, Healthcare Practice, and Research.

Racial and ethnic disparities in access to community-based perinatal mental health programs: results from a cross-sectional survey.

Background: Perinatal mental health is a major public health problem that disproportionately affects people from racial and ethnic minority groups. Community-based perinatal mental health programs, such as peer support groups, are essential tools for the prevention and treatment of perinatal depression. Yet, little is known about racial and ethnic disparities in accessibility and utilization of community-based perinatal mental health programs.

A Qualitative Investigation of the Experiences of Women with Perinatal Depression and Anxiety during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impacts on maternal mental health. We explored the lived experiences of women with perinatal depression and anxiety to elucidate their perceptions of how the pandemic influenced their mental health and access to care.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative descriptive study using semi-structured interviews.

An Initiative to Improve Postpartum Discharge Education.

Objective: To evaluate an online POST-BIRTH Warning Signs (PBWS) project focused on improving nurses' knowledge and how they teach individuals in the postpartum period about potential complications.

Design: Quality improvement project with exploratory pretest/posttest.

Setting: Seventy hospitals with maternity services throughout the United States.

Postpartum Depressive Symptoms during the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Examination of Population Birth Data from Central New Jersey.

Objectives: To examine the mental health of women in the perinatal period prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: We use provisional vital statistics data for births occurring in the central region of New Jersey. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale is employed to assess depressive symptoms.

Consensus Bundle on Postpartum Care Basics: From Birth to the Comprehensive Postpartum Visit.

In the weeks after childbirth, a woman navigates multiple challenges. She must recover from birth, learn to care for herself and her newborn, and cope with fatigue and postpartum mood changes as well as chronic health conditions. Alongside these common morbidities, the number of maternal deaths in the United States continues to increase, and unacceptable racial inequities persist.

Challenges and opportunities to understand, discuss, and decrease maternal mortality rates in the United States. The New Jersey experience.

Maternal mortality improvement depends on the proper classification used in defining maternal deaths. Since there are several definitions of maternal deaths depending upon the proximate cause of the death, if the death is related to the physiologic changes during pregnancy or not and the timing of the death, some opportunities for improvement may be missed to decrease the overall maternal mortality rate in the USA if the correct definition is not utilized appropriately.

National Partnership for Maternal Safety: Consensus Bundle on Obstetric Care for Women With Opioid Use Disorder.

The opioid epidemic is a public health crisis, and pregnancy-associated morbidity and mortality due to substance use highlights the need to prioritize substance use as a major patient safety issue. To assist health care providers with this process and mitigate the effect of substance use on maternal and fetal safety, the National Partnership for Maternal Safety within the Council on Patient Safety in Women's Health Care has created a patient safety bundle to reduce adverse maternal and neonatal health outcomes associated with substance use. The Consensus Bundle on Obstetric Care for Women with Opioid Use Disorder provides a series of evidence-based recommendations to standardize and improve the quality of health care services for pregnant and postpartum women with opioid use disorder, which should be implemented in every maternity care setting.

Reduction of Peripartum Racial and Ethnic Disparities: A Conceptual Framework and Maternal Safety Consensus Bundle.

Racial and ethnic disparities exist in both perinatal outcomes and health care quality. For example, Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes and have more than a twofold greater risk of severe maternal morbidity than White women. In an effort to achieve health equity in maternal morbidity and mortality, a multidisciplinary workgroup of the National Partnership for Maternal Safety, within the Council on Patient Safety in Women's Health Care, developed a concept article for the bundle on reduction of peripartum disparities.

Reduction of Peripartum Racial and Ethnic Disparities: A Conceptual Framework and Maternal Safety Consensus Bundle.

Racial and ethnic disparities exist in both perinatal outcomes and health care quality. For example, black women are 3 to 4 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes and have more than a 2-fold greater risk of severe maternal morbidity than white women. In an effort to achieve health equity in maternal morbidity and mortality, a multidisciplinary workgroup of the National Partnership for Maternal Safety, within the Council on Patient Safety in Women's Health Care, developed a concept article for the bundle on reduction of peripartum disparities.

Reduction of Peripartum Racial and Ethnic Disparities: A Conceptual Framework and Maternal Safety Consensus Bundle.

Racial and ethnic disparities exist in both perinatal outcomes and health care quality. For example, black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes and have more than a twofold greater risk of severe maternal morbidity than white women. In an effort to achieve health equity in maternal morbidity and mortality, a multidisciplinary workgroup of the National Partnership for Maternal Safety, within the Council on Patient Safety in Women's Health Care, developed a concept article for the bundle on reduction of peripartum disparities.

Strategies to Reduce Maternal Mortality During the First Year After Birth.

The rate of maternal mortality is rising in the United States, and patient education is key to help women recognize signs and symptoms of complications of pregnancy. Health care providers should always ask a woman of childbearing age if she has experienced a recent pregnancy or birth, and women should remind health care providers at every encounter of a pregnancy or birth during the past year. It may make the difference between life and death.

National Partnership for Maternal Safety: Consensus Bundle on Venous Thromboembolism.

Obstetric venous thromboembolism is a leading cause of severe maternal morbidity and mortality. Maternal death from thromboembolism is amenable to prevention, and thromboprophylaxis is the most readily implementable means of systematically reducing the maternal death rate. Observational data support the benefit of risk-factor-based prophylaxis in reducing obstetric thromboembolism.

National Partnership for Maternal Safety: Consensus Bundle on Venous Thromboembolism.

Obstetric venous thromboembolism is a leading cause of severe maternal morbidity and mortality. Maternal death from thromboembolism is amenable to prevention, and thromboprophylaxis is the most readily implementable means of systematically reducing the maternal death rate. Observational data support the benefit of risk-factor-based prophylaxis in reducing obstetric thromboembolism.

National Partnership for Maternal Safety: Consensus Bundle on Venous Thromboembolism.

Obstetric venous thromboembolism is a leading cause of severe maternal morbidity and mortality. Maternal death from thromboembolism is amenable to prevention, and thromboprophylaxis is the most readily implementable means of systematically reducing the maternal death rate. Observational data support the benefit of risk-factor-based prophylaxis in reducing obstetric thromboembolism.

National Partnership for Maternal Safety: Consensus Bundle on Venous Thromboembolism.

Obstetric venous thromboembolism is a leading cause of severe maternal morbidity and mortality. Maternal death from thromboembolism is amenable to prevention, and thromboprophylaxis is the most readily implementable means of systematically reducing the maternal death rate. Observational data support the benefit of risk-factor-based prophylaxis in reducing obstetric thromboembolism.

The maternal early warning criteria: a proposal from the national partnership for maternal safety.

Case reviews of maternal death have revealed a concerning pattern of delay in recognition of hemorrhage, hypertensive crisis, sepsis, venous thromboembolism, and heart failure. Early-warning systems have been proposed to facilitate timely recognition, diagnosis, and treatment for women developing critical illness. A multidisciplinary working group convened by the National Partnership for Maternal Safety used a consensus-based approach to define The Maternal Early Warning Criteria, a list of abnormal parameters that indicate the need for urgent bedside evaluation by a clinician with the capacity to escalate care as necessary in order to pursue diagnostic and therapeutic interventions.

The maternal early warning criteria: a proposal from the national partnership for maternal safety.

Case reviews of maternal death have revealed a concerning pattern of delay in recognition of hemorrhage, hypertensive crisis, sepsis, venous thromboembolism, and heart failure. Early-warning systems have been proposed to facilitate timely recognition, diagnosis, and treatment for women developing critical illness. A multidisciplinary working group convened by the National Partnership for Maternal Safety used a consensus-based approach to define The Maternal Early Warning Criteria, a list of abnormal parameters that indicate the need for urgent bedside evaluation by a clinician with the capacity to escalate care as necessary in order to pursue diagnostic and therapeutic interventions.