Delivering Better Care: Midwifery Practice in New Jersey
A Black woman in New Jersey is seven times more likely to die of pregnancy or birth issues than a White woman. These intolerable racial disparities contribute heavily to the state ranking 47th in the US in maternal health outcomes.
Such maternal infant health (MIH) initiatives as First Lady Tammy Murphy’s Nurture NJ recognize midwifery as an important way to reduce racial disparities. The use of midwives is cost-effective and associated with improved health outcomes. Though midwives are the standard providers of maternal and newborn care in much of the world, their use is far less frequent in the US; midwives attend fewer than 10% of births in New Jersey.
To develop ways to make midwives a bigger part of the birth experience in New Jersey, the Burke Foundation, partnering with the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, released Delivering Better Care: Midwifery Practice in New Jersey, an in-depth review of midwifery practice in the state.
The findings identified the following needs:
- More accessible and diverse education and training pathways for would-be midwives
- Providing equitable care within the midwifery scope of practice
- Improved compensation and reimbursement structures for midwives
- Integrating midwives into birthing care to improve outcomes for mother and baby
The Maternal Infant Health (MIH) Hub
To work toward implementing the Delivering Better Care: Midwifery Practice in New Jersey recommendations, the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute and the Burke Foundation will launch the Maternal Infant Health Hub as a policy and learning collaborative to strengthen midwifery practice and promote birth equity and justice in New Jersey. The Hub will convene midwives, advocates, and MIH stakeholders to create a shared learning space and provide educational resources focused on maternal health policy. The Hub will work with participants to help design a policy- and advocacy-focused midwifery fellowship to assist early-career midwifery leaders.
The Hub’s 3 Key Aspects
- Hub Advisory Board: To provide expertise and oversight, the Hub Board will assess midwifery practice in New Jersey and provide guidance on supporting equitable pregnancy and birthing care. Board members will advance recommendations from the Delivering Better Care report and address other emerging priorities. The Hub Board also will guide the Maternal Infant Health Midwifery Collaborative — midwives and stakeholders who will convene and strategize about best practices for midwifery policy, practice, and integration. The 12-member Hub Board will be instrumental in determining the main focus areas for implementing policy change. Members will represent a diverse group of stakeholders aligned with the sector: 7 midwives and midwifery students, 1 physician and/or other healthcare champion, 1 insurer, 1 healthcare administrator, 1 community/advocacy organization member, and 1 birthing person.
- MIH Midwifery Collaborative: This entity will facilitate virtual and in-person convenings for midwives, midwifery students, and other healthcare stakeholders, with a focus on midwifery policy and advancing the report’s recommendations. The Collaborative will provide space for healthcare leaders to learn, connect, and participate in policy discussions related to working in the field and advancing the Hub’s goals. The Collaborative’s aims are to facilitate sustained discussion around implementing midwifery recommendations and making them more action-oriented, share success stories, and analyze policy challenges. Two Collaborative sessions will be hosted each quarter with topic areas and guidelines established by the Hub Advisory Board.
- MIH Policy Spotlight: This virtual education program for midwives and other MIH stakeholders will feature subject matter experts on relevant policy and regulatory-related maternal child healthcare issues. These quarterly sessions will be recorded for use in independent learning.
The MIH Hub will launch in December 2022. For additional questions, please contact Armonie Pierre-Jacques, Community Health and Policy Associate at apierrejacques@njhcqi.org.
Support for this work has been generously provided by the Burke Foundation.
