Maternal Health Resources for Texas Practitioners
Because Mothers Matter
Best Practices for Advancing Maternal Health and Birth Equity
Practitioners can take impactful steps toward promoting equity and improving maternal health outcomes in their communities. Here are key actions to consider:
Address Implicit Bias: Understand the effects of implicit bias on patient care and take proactive steps to identify and address personal biases. Creating a plan to mitigate bias improves both the patient experience and healthcare outcomes.
Support Rural Healthcare: Contribute to or collaborate with clinicians providing obstetrical services in rural communities. Your involvement can help bridge critical healthcare gaps in underserved areas.
Engage in Continuing Education: Participate in continuing medical education (CME) courses and training programs focused on vital topics such as patient safety, implicit bias, and birth equity. This knowledge supports better clinical practices and improves maternal care.
Join Maternal Health Review Committees: Become an active participant in local maternal health review committees. These committees play a crucial role in evaluating and improving maternal health outcomes at the community level.
Advocate for Birth Equity: Champion policies that promote birth equity within your practice and the broader hospital system. Key actions include supporting the standardization of mandatory data collection and reporting to ensure equitable care across all populations.
Support Medicaid Expansion: Advocate for Medicaid expansion, payment parity, and comprehensive postpartum coverage to ensure continuous, equitable care for individuals throughout their reproductive health journey.
By incorporating these practices into your professional life, you can play a pivotal role in advancing equitable maternal healthcare in Texas.
Support for all mothers
This is a collated list of evidence-based, peer-reviewed information addressing the social and economic forces affecting maternal and infant health.
The goal is to support practitioners serving a wide range of women, including minority and economically/socially marginalized patients.
Best Practices for Advancing Birth Equity and Maternal Health
Practitioners can take impactful steps toward promoting equity and improving maternal health outcomes in their communities. Here are key actions to consider:
Address Implicit Bias: Understand the effects of implicit bias on patient care and take proactive steps to identify and address personal biases. Creating a plan to mitigate bias improves both the patient experience and healthcare outcomes.
Support Rural Healthcare: Contribute to or collaborate with clinicians providing obstetrical services in rural communities. Your involvement can help bridge critical healthcare gaps in underserved areas.
Engage in Continuing Education: Participate in continuing medical education (CME) courses and training programs focused on vital topics such as patient safety, implicit bias, and birth equity. This knowledge supports better clinical practices and improves maternal care.
Join Maternal Health Review Committees: Become an active participant in local maternal health review committees. These committees play a crucial role in evaluating and improving maternal health outcomes at the community level.
Advocate for Birth Equity: Champion policies that promote birth equity within your practice and the broader hospital system. Key actions include supporting the standardization of mandatory data collection and reporting to ensure equitable care across all populations.
Support Medicaid Expansion: Advocate for Medicaid expansion, payment parity, and comprehensive postpartum coverage to ensure continuous, equitable care for individuals throughout their reproductive health journey.
By incorporating these practices into your professional life, you can play a pivotal role in advancing equitable maternal healthcare in Texas.
Bundles, toolkits, and other resources
A recent report by the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health shows where mothers have the most significant risk for suffering from maternal mental health disorders and where providers are most needed. Highest risk counties in Texas are Jasper, Lamar, and Tyler. The counties with the lowest mental health resources available are Harris and Dallas.
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Risk-appropriate care is a strategy to ensure that pregnant women and infants get the right care in the right place at the right time. To provide a consistent approach to assessing risk-appropriate care, CDC developed the CDC Levels of Care Assessment Tool (CDC LOCATe).
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Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine partnered with the National Birth Equity Collaborative to create this infographic.
More Texas Resources
Read the latest Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee (MMMRC) and Department of State Health Services Joint Biennial Report, which estimates 80 percent of the pregnancy-related deaths in Texas were preventable.
Joint Biennial Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee Report 2024
Joint Biennial Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee Report 2022
The Texas State Health Plan examines the factors affecting health equity in Texas. It makes recommendations concerning access to care, rural health, teleservices and technology, and the state’s mental health and behavioral healthcare workforce.
The March of Dimes reports offer a comprehensive overview of maternal and infant health in Texas. They provide comprehensive data and illustrate where resources are needed to reduce the complications of pregnancy during delivery and postpartum.