Blueprint for Action: Steps Toward a High-Quality, High-Value Maternity Care System

Creating the Transforming Maternity Care "Blueprint for Action"

"Blueprint for Action: Steps Toward a High-Quality, High-Value Maternity Care System" (2010) is the result of a structured process for capturing expertise and experiences of diverse stakeholders and fostering big leaps forward in maternity care quality improvement (see diagram [PDF] and summary of Transforming Maternity Care process). Within this process, a multi-stakeholder Vision Team developed the "2020 Vision for a High-Quality, High-Value Health Care System." Five stakeholder workgroups were then convened to identify priority actions that their sector should undertake to move expeditiously toward the envisioned system. Workgroup chairs presented their reports at an invitational multi-stakeholder symposium in Washington DC, where invited discussants and audience members collaborated to strengthen the analysis and recommendations.

After the symposium, workgroups finalized the stakeholder workgroup reports, which are published on this website. The Transforming Maternity Care Steering Committee synthesized the workgroup reports and additional feedback into its "Blueprint for Action." The "2020 Vision," "Blueprint for Action," summary of symposium proceedings, and companion documents are freely available in a special Transforming Maternity Care issue of Women's Health Issues (January 2010). Many individuals and groups have begun to explore or actively work on implementing specific Blueprint recommendations.

(Those who wish to learn more about specific recommendations and perhaps become active in implementing them should understand that the stakeholder workgroup reports provide much greater specificity and detail than the Blueprint.)

"Blueprint for Action" content areas

• performance measurement and leveraging of results
• payment reform to align incentives with quality
• disparities in access and outcomes of maternity care
• improved functioning of the liability system
• scope of covered services for maternity care
• coordination of maternity care across time, settings, and disciplines
• clinical controversies (home birth, vaginal birth after cesarean, vaginal breech and twin birth, elective induction, cesarean without indication)
• decision making and consumer choice
• scope, content and availability of health professions education
• workforce composition and distribution
• development and use of health information technology.

Transforming Maternity Care Steering Committee issued "Blueprint for Action"

The following individuals served on the Steering Committee and issued the "Blueprint for Action":

Peter B. Angood, MD
Senior Advisor on Patient Safety, National Quality Forum

Elizabeth Mitchell Armstrong, PhD
Lamaze International Board of Directors
Associate Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Office of Population Research, Princeton University

Diane Ashton, MD, MPH 
Deputy Medical Director, March of Dimes

Helen Burstin, MD, MPH
Senior Vice President of Performance Measures, National Quality Forum

Maureen P. Corry, MPH
Executive Director, Childbirth Connection

Suzanne F. Delbanco, PhD
President, Health Care Division, Arrowsight, Inc.

Barbara Fildes, MS, CNM, FACNM
American College of Nurse-Midwives
Assistant Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dartmouth Medical School

Daniel M. Fox, PhD
President Emeritus, Milbank Memorial Fund

Paul A. Gluck, MD
Immediate Past Chair of the Board, National Patient Safety Foundation
Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

Sue Leavitt Gullo, RN, MS
Managing Director, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Joanne Howes
Women’s Health Consultant

R. Rima Jolivet, MSN, CNM, MPH
Associate Director of Programs, Childbirth Connection

Douglas W. Laube, MD
Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Past President, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Donna Lynne, DrPH
President, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Colorado, Childbirth Connection Board of Directors

Elliott Main, MD
Chair, California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative
Director of Obstetric Quality, Sutter Health
Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology, California Pacific Medical Center

Anne Rossier Markus, JD, PhD, MHS
Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs
Associate Research Professor of Health Policy, The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services

Linda Mayberry, PhD, RN, FAAN
Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses
Associate Adjunct Professor, College of Nursing, New York University

Lynn V. Mitchell, MD, MPH
Oklahoma State Medicaid Director, Oklahoma Health Care Authority

Debra L. Ness
President, National Partnership for Women and Families

Rachel Nuzum, MPH
Senior Policy Director, Policy and State Innovations, The Commonwealth Fund

Jeffrey D. Quinlan, MD
Chair, American Academy of Family Physicians Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics Program Advisory Board
Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences

Carol Sakala, PhD, MSPH
Director of Programs, Childbirth Connection

Alina Salganicoff, PhD
Vice President and Director, Women’s Health Policy and KaiserEDU.org, Kaiser Family Foundation

Childbirth Connection expresses its appreciation to members of the Steering Committee for their exceptional contributions to the Transforming Maternity Care project.