Our Commitment to Changing the Culture of Medicine—Resources
Our clinical guidance, statements of policy, and clinical resources outline strategies for combating racism and bias in the delivery of women’s health care. We encourage all ob-gyns and other health care professionals to join our efforts to eliminate racial bias in women’s health care.
- Executive Board Statement of Policy on Racial Bias
- Racial Disparities in Maternal Mortality in the United States: The Postpartum Period Is a Missed Opportunity for Action (Postpartum Tool Kit)
ACOG recognizes that racial bias, whether implicit or explicit, can negatively impact the delivery of health care. There are a variety of tools you can use to explore your personal bias. ACOG encourages its members and other health care professionals to self-reflect and become aware of potential biases.
Promoting Public Policy
We are dedicated to achieving public policies that help eliminate racial disparities and improve women’s health. Our advocacy has led to the creation of new policies that combat disparities in women’s health.
Last year, ACOG’s top legislative priority, the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act, was signed into law after tireless advocacy on the part of ACOG and our partners. The Act provides federal funding for maternal mortality review committees (MMRCs), which are interdisciplinary groups of local experts, to review maternal death cases using data collection and to identify locally relevant ways to prevent future death.
Now we are building on this success by pushing for federal funding and support for programs to specifically address racial bias and disparities in maternity care, ensuring that every woman receives appropriate, high quality care. Currently, ACOG is leading a broad based coalition urging the U.S. Congress to act now in passing H.R. 4995, the Maternal Health Quality Improvement Act and H.R. 4996, the Helping Medicaid Offer Maternity Services Act. These two bills include provisions critical to addressing maternal mortality and eliminating racial disparities in maternal health. Read our stakeholder letter—signed by 50 organizations—here.
To learn more about our advocacy efforts, follow @ACOGACTION on Twitter.
ACOG educates policy makers at all levels regarding the need to eliminate disparities in maternal outcomes. Read the testimony ACOG Immediate Past President Lisa M. Hollier, MD, MPH, FACOG delivered to the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee at its hearing on Overcoming Racial Disparities and Social Determinants in the Maternal Mortality Crisis in May 2019.
Reaching Across the Nation
In partnership with the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (“HRSA”), ACOG is working to reduce maternal mortality and eliminate disparities in outcomes through the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (“AIM”).
AIM is a national, cross-sector, data-driven maternal safety and quality improvement initiative focused on increasing and supporting the adoption of evidence-based maternal safety best practices to promote safe maternal healthcare for every U.S. birth.
AIM assists state-based teams and health systems with the implementation of maternal safety bundles. These bundles seek to improve the quality and safety of maternity care with the goal of reducing maternal deaths and severe maternal morbidity, including the stark racial and ethnic disparities in maternal health outcomes, by engaging health care organizations, state-based public health systems, consumer and patient advocacy groups, and other stakeholders within a national partnership to assist state-based teams in implementing evidence-based maternal safety best practices. The Reduction in Peripartum Disparities Bundle outlines best practices for physicians and health professionals to implement to address disparities in outcomes.
Every Mom. Every Time.
Learn how ACOG is combating maternal mortality.
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