UNC Collaborative for Maternal & Infant Health

UNC Collaborative for Maternal & Infant Health

Improving the health of North Carolina's women and infants

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Care4Moms

Care4Moms researches the health care needs and experiences with health care services for mothers of medically fragile infants.

Mothers with hospitalized medically fragile infants are a high-risk population that may have both increased need for and barriers to accessing health care in the postpartum period. The importance of postpartum health for these mothers is amplified by increased demands of caring for a medically fragile infant and increased urgency for birth spacing and risk reduction for future pregnancies. There is limited research about the health care needs, utilization, and experience with health care services for these mothers. There is equally limited research about management of postpartum recovery in the context of mothering a fragile and/or hospitalized baby and the perspectives of OB/GYN and neonatal care providers and health system administrators as to their roles and responsibilities for the health care of these women.

Through this research project, we will identify the challenges these mothers have in accessing care as well as propose recommended modifications to the current system of care. This will result in ensuring access to quality health care for these women, resulting in the healthy development of MCH populations.  Our research team, with guidance from the Neonatal Critical Care Center Family Advisory Board, will synthesize learning from multiple research approaches into a series of recommendations for health care systems. This research will enrich the field by identifying the needs of a high-risk population of mothers and proposing recommendations for change. Given the growing national interest in postpartum care, this research will support program implementation based on well- defined maternal health needs in the context of feasible system changes.

Our research team includes an all woman team of Alison Stuebe, Renee Ferrari, Michelle Jonsson-Funk, Sarah Verbiest, Erin McClain, Katherine Bryant, Patricia Bojakowski and Christine Tucker.
Our research team includes an all woman team of Alison Stuebe, Renee Ferrari, Michelle Jonsson-Funk, Sarah Verbiest, Erin McClain, Katherine Bryant, Patricia Bojakowski and Marisa Domino.
Dissemination of Results
Posters

Perinatal Morbidity among Mothers of Medically Fragile Infants – ACOG 2017 Annual Clinical and Scientific Meeting

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy among mothers of medically fragile infants – 2018 ACOG Annual Clinical and Scientific Meeting

Benefits and Challenges of Linking Electronic Medical Record and Claims Data for Perinatal Research – ACOG 2019 Annual Clinical and Scientific Meeting

Postpartum Severe Maternal Morbidity Among Mothers of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Infants – ACOG 2019 Annual Clinical and Scientific Meeting

Using electronic medical record data to quantify racial and ethnic differences in pain management following cesarean birth – SMFM’s 38th Annual Pregnancy Meeting (2018)

Postpartum health service utilization by mothers of infants admitted to neonatal intensive care. – 39th Annual SMFM Pregnancy Meeting (2019)

The New Mother Friendly NICU: Understanding and Improving the Postpartum Experience for Mothers of Medically Fragile Infants – Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs 2019, National Perinatal Association 2019

Insight into the Experiences of Spanish-speaking Mothers with Babies in the NICU – Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs 2019

Early identification of women likely to be high utilizers of perinatal acute care services – SMFM’s 40th Annual Pregnancy Meeting (2020)

Differences in postpartum receipt of long-acting reversible contraception by sociodemographic characteristics – SMFM’s 40th Annual Pregnancy Meeting (2020)

Maternal Resilience: The Navigation and the Negotiation of the Postpartum Experience by Mothers of Medically Fragile Infants – 2020 AMCHP Virtual Conference (2020)

Presentations

Patterns of opiate prescribing following cesarean birth. –  SMFM’s 38th Annual Pregnancy Meeting (2018)

Racial Equity and Access to pasteurized donor human milk in hospital setting. – 14th Breastfeeding and Feminism International Conference  (March 2019)

Birth Control Utilization Among Mothers Of Infants With An Extended Stay In The NICU -ISPE’s 36th International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology and Therapeutic Risk Management (ICPE) – ICPE All Access (September 2020)

Publications

The Association between Travel Time and Prenatal Care Attendance. Am J Perinatol. 2019 Jun 12. doi: 10.1055/s-0039-1692455. [Epub ahead of print]

The Association between Travel Time and Prenatal Care Attendance. Maldonado LY1, Fryer KE2, Tucker CM1, Stuebe AM1,3.

Health Needs of Mothers of Infants in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit : A Mixed-Methods Study Ann Intern Med 2020 Dec 1;173(11 Suppl):S37-S44. doi: 10.7326/M19-3252. Sarah Verbiest 1 , Renée Ferrari 2 , Christine Tucker 3 , Erin K McClain 4 , Nkechi Charles 3 , Alison M Stuebe 5

Racial and Ethnic Inequities in Postpartum Pain Evaluation and Management Obstet Gynecol 2019 Dec;134(6):1155-1162. doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000003505.Jasmine D Johnson 1 , Ifeyinwa V Asiodu, Christine P McKenzie, Christine Tucker, Kristin P Tully, Katherine Bryant, Sarah Verbiest, Alison M Stuebe

This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number R40MC29455, Maternal and Child Health Field-initiated Innovative Research Studies Program. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.

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Key Staff

    Katherine Bryant, MA, MSPH

    Program Manager
    katherine_bryant@med.unc.edu
    919-962-7924

    Alison Stuebe, MD, MSc

    Co-Director, Maternal Fetal Medicine
    astuebe@med.unc.edu
    919-966-1601

UNC Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health aims to improve the health and well-being of women and families across North Carolina through community partnerships, research and clinical care innovations, and developing new approaches to complex problems.

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Room 216 MacNider
Campus Box 7181
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7181

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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