Preeclampsia Foundation Announces Patient Coalition to Improve Maternal Health Outcomes

Melbourne, Florida – December 12, 2018 – The Preeclampsia Foundation is pleased to announce MoMMA’s Voices, a national coalition of patient organizations and individuals with lived experiences or those who represent them, using their voices to reduce maternal complications in pregnancy and the postpartum period.

With the wave of media and public attention on the growing and unacceptable rates of maternal mortality and severe morbidity in the United States, this coalition answers the need for a strong consumer voice to advocate, amplify, and illustrate these issues in the US. MoMMA is short for Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Advocates, which captures the coalition’s mission.

“Maternal complications of pregnancy have very few dedicated charities or advocacy organizations that represent the voices of the women and their families affected by these conditions,” said Eleni Tsigas, Chief Executive Officer of the Preeclampsia Foundation. “Where organizations for specific conditions do exist, they have mostly been working in silos without a unified voice around shared agendas. What is needed is a united voice of maternal health advocates – patient-driven organizations and individual advocates representing the ‘lived experience’ as we work to improve outcomes from complications of pregnancy.”

The coalition’s overarching goal is to provide a home and platform for the patient voice to actively engage in efforts to make childbirth safer in our nation. Most importantly, it will provide training and tools to equip advocates to become effective champions for change. One example includes the Champions for Change Summit, convened October 12-14, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois, to provide training to over 100 women with “lived experiences” on storytelling with a purpose, engaging in quality improvement initiatives and working with the media to drive public awareness of these problems.

Preeclampsia, postpartum hemorrhage, amniotic fluid embolism, placenta accreta, cardiovascular disease, mental health, and other medical complications of pregnancy are the leading causes of mothers dying or getting very sick in pregnancy and the postpartum period. Issues like patient-provider communications, racial disparities, quality of healthcare delivery, and patient information cut across all these medical conditions and heavily contribute to preventable maternal deaths and illness.

In addition to the Preeclampsia Foundation, the coalition will be led by an executive steering committee to include inaugural members Amniotic Fluid Embolism (AFE) Foundation, Black Women’s Health Imperative, Every Mother Counts, National Accreta Foundation, 2020Mom, The Shades of Blue Project and others still to be confirmed. The coalition is funded by a grant from Merck for Mothers as part of their worldwide 10-year initiative to assure no woman dies giving life. To receive updates and express interest in participating in the coalition, visit www.mommasvoices.org.

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