Maternity care practices have become increasingly more important in the area of public health with organizations such as the CDC, WHO, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians and the Surgeon General issuing calls to action and providing measurable benchmarks for hospitals and care providers. In this conference we would like to highlight the best practices for maternity care and infant nutrition as recommended by these organizations, specifically those directed at physicians and advanced level practitioners. In addition to addressing specific practice improvements for these providers, we will discuss the most recent recommendations for two common issues of the peri-partum period: neonatal abstinence syndrome and post- partum mood disorders.

Each state receives specific scores related to a number of process and outcome measurements from the CDC in the form of their “Breastfeeding Report Card.” In addition, the CDC provides state-specific information on strengths and weaknesses in maternity care practices through the information gathered in the Maternity Practices in Infant Nutrition and Care (mPINC) survey. For the first time in several years, Wisconsin has seen a decrease in the number of mothers initiating breastfeeding indicating an educational need for improved efforts both pre- and post-natally, efforts that are especially needed in low income populations. Based on Wisconsin’s mPINC scores, our state has several areas where change is needed, including education of hospital staff and physicians in evidence based maternity care practices.  And while not measured in these surveys, the issues of peripartum mood disorders, maternal substance abuse and neonatal abstinence syndrome are areas that are rapidly increasing in importance and have effects on all aspects of maternity care practices.

Physician and staff education is one of the variables of the mPINC survey, and in places most successful in achieving meaningful change, physician champions have been crucial. We want to cultivate physician champions who are willing to advocate for and implement maternity care practice changes within their organizations and practices.

Improvement in maternity care practices is a multilayered endeavor.  For this step, we wish to educate physicians and advanced level care practitioners, an important group of people to bring on board early within the process because they can be powerful leaders for change. We will survey conference participants on practice performance issues just after the conference and then again 6 months later.  Our baseline measurements for maternity care practices will be those already published by the CDC. We will continue to monitor Wisconsin-specific data through the CDC surveys, looking for improvement in areas involving staff and provider education.