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Maternal mortality prevention

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Maternal Mortality Prevention Program

  • Oversees the Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC).

  • Reviews medical records, police reports, coroner reports, and death certificates to collect information about the causes of death.

  • Shares information about people who die during pregnancy or in the first year after giving birth.

  • Works to improve the health and safety of all those who are pregnant and postpartum.

Maternal Mortality Review Committee

The MMRC is a group of health care providers, public health professionals, and people with lived experience that reviews causes of maternal deaths in Colorado. The group includes expertise in doula care, obstetrics/gynecology, maternal-fetal medicine, midwifery, nursing, anesthesiology, forensic pathology, psychology, psychiatry, mental and behavioral health care, substance misuse, patient advocacy, rural health, social work, violence prevention, and public health.

The MMP program collects and reviews health records from each death and creates a case summary without any identifying information. These summaries are reviewed by the committee in order to:

  • Determine the annual number of maternal deaths in Colorado.

  • Determine whether the death was related to the pregnancy.

  • Discuss whether the death could have been prevented and if so, how it could have been prevented.

  • Identify trends and factors that might contribute to maternal deaths.

  • Develop and put into practice strategies that reduce and stop future deaths.

Grantees selected for Community-led Solutions RFA #42001

Community-led Solutions to Prevent Maternal Mortality and Morbidity - RFA #42001The RFA is funding five (5) organizations to implement community-led solutions to decrease mortality and morbidity among pregnant and postpartum Coloradans. Thank you to the following organizations who have been selected for dedicating their expertise, time, and energy to improve perinatal health across the state of Colorado:

Center for African American Health
The Center for African American Health (CAA Health) improves health and wellness
of Metro Denver’s Black community by helping individuals navigate systems that have an impact on health. Their project proposal includes providing culturally competent and culturally reflective resource navigation to Black birthing people including social support groups, behavioral health resources, and social determinants of health resources; this translates to warm connections to culturally-affirming physicians, therapists, doulas, and other community resources.

Early Childhood Partnership of Adams County
The Early Childhood Partnership of Adams County (ECPAC), is the official Early Childhood Council serving Adams County and seeks to enhance the systems serving prenatal-8 years, and their families and caregivers by improving equitable access to affordable, high-quality services in early learning, health/mental health, and family support and education. Their project includes providing resource navigation to pregnant and postpartum families, parenting classes and support groups, and supporting pregnant and postpartum parents/guardians with access to culturally specific childbirth preparation and newborn care experiences.

Empowering Communities, Protecting Women
Empowering Communities, Protecting Women (ECPW) is a community organization made up of twenty-four trained, refugee-identifying women who serve as Labor and Birth Doulas. ECPW’s mission is to provide culturally congruent care to newly arrived immigrants in Denver during their perinatal period.Their proposal includes continuing education for existing doulas, as well as training additional cohorts of diverse language-speaking women to build up doulas representing each spoken language in Denver,Colorado and the surrounding areas.

La Cocina
La Cocina is a Latine-founded, Latine-led, and Latine-serving nonprofit whose mission
is to elevate Latine-centered knowledge that heals and transforms the lives and communities of those most impacted by inequity and trauma. Their project proposal includes community-centered codesign opportunities to identify the needs of Latine pregnant and parenting individuals, professional development trainings/workshops for Latine serving community-based organizations, and Liberation-Based Reflective Consultation (LiBRC) to teams and groups working with Latine families.

MamaBird Doula Services
MamaBird Doula service’s mission is to improve the outcomes for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) birthing persons with a specific emphasis on Black birthing persons and their families. This means all birthing persons should feel Safe, Seen, and Heard through high-quality, compassionate, and culturally responsive care.  Their project proposal includes a doula mentorship program and support circles for birthing families.

MMRC publications

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Learn more about maternal mortality in Colorado and the United States by visiting CDC's resource portal.