Missouri’s Annual Maternal and Infant Health Convening: A Reflection on Change and Collaboration
Published Mar 13, 2025
Alison Williams, DNP, MBA-HCM, CPHQ, LSSGB
Vice President of Clinical Quality Improvement
Missouri Hospital Association
Each year, maternal and infant health stakeholders from across Missouri come together with a shared mission: to create real-world change and build meaningful connections that better serve women and infants.
This year’s two-day convening provided an opportunity to learn from leading experts, share resources, celebrate successes and collaborate on addressing barriers to better birth outcomes.
Thanks to the partnership of MHA, DHSS, the Uplift Connection, and the Missouri Foundation for Health, the event offered a broader and more diverse learning experience than ever before.
Day 1 Reflections
The convening’s first plenary session, Healing the Healers: Building Resilience to Avoid Compassion Fatigue and Burnout in the Maternal Health Workforce, was presented by Sharise Nance, LSCW, CCTP. This session focused on strategies to support health care professionals working tirelessly to improve maternal and infant health.
Reflection on the challenges and rewards of working on maternal and infant mortality and harm were met with exercises and strategies to support building resilience and coping skills.
One example that resonated strongly was the 49/51 concept — an intentional way to approach a new workflow, staff members or teams. Through the 49/51 rule, individuals take on more of a project or workload early on (the 49) but shift and delegate aspects so that learning and competency by other team members, or even patients, is achieved (the 51).
Finding effective and feasible ways to share tasks and team-based work prevents compassion fatigue and builds a stronger, cohesive team. With the large number of initiatives and quality improvement changes taking place in the maternal-infant space, leveraging tools such as the 49/51 principle can help launch and release workloads based on skill set and experience in a reasonable way that builds team competency together.
“Sustaining others is a beautiful gift. Sustaining yourself is a responsibility.”
Attendees also learned about Missouri state reimbursement policy updates for MO HealthNet with Dr. Abby Barker from Washington University in St. Louis and the MO HealthNet Transformation Office. Breakout sessions throughout the afternoon covered a range of topics.
- Nourishing Healthy Starts
- Empowering Missouri Mothers: Tackling Substance Use Stigma to Improve Health Equity and Care
- Early Head Start Doula Services
- Tracking Social Drivers of Health in Missouri Hospitals
- Designing Postpartum Dietary Recommendations to Improve Breastfeeding Outcomes
Additional breakout sessions in the afternoon covered topics such as doula support, newborn screening, perinatal mental health and best practices in contraceptive counseling. The day concluded with a Poster Walk Reception, an engaging forum to explore the latest research and initiatives in maternal and infant health.
During the reception, MO PQC gave attendees a sneak peek of the Ask Me 5 initiative. Developed in tandem with maternal health experts and patients with lived experience, Ask Me 5 seeks to improve maternal health outcomes during pregnancy and the postpartum period by promoting five essential health questions. MO PQC shared videos about the campaign as well as the website, AskMe5.org, that provides free resources and education.
Day 2 Reflections
The second day began with an insightful panel discussion on Rural Maternal Obstetrics Management Strategies Programs From Across the U.S. Experts from Missouri and beyond shared innovative approaches to improving maternal
health in rural communities.
Learning from other predominantly rural states — Montana, New Mexico and Maine — about their approaches to maternal-infant health deserts resonated strongly with the audience. Recognition that poverty and lack of access are issues experienced across population demographics in each state fostered discussions on how urban centers and rural areas are partnering to close the gaps.
Specific focuses on leveraging available and new technologies, telehealth pipelines and workforce levers were key solutions discussed. Missouri’s efforts and success in the southeast region to leverage closed-loop referral systems and data platforms to address clinical and social drivers of health also were highlighted. Building strong, collaborative relationships across regions and provider types as well as with patients were cited as critical to moving the needle, too.
Following this, the Missouri Optimizing Postpartum Care Task Force Panel Discussion brought together medical professionals, mental health experts and community advocates to discuss strategies for enhancing postpartum care across the state.
This panel showcased strong clinical-community collaboration as the task force seeks to complete development of a set of recommendations to guide postpartum care through 12 months. Panelists shared the process of coming together as a broad community of stakeholders to research and identify best care practices across different populations and factors.
They also shared the value of the experience individually as they learned from each other, received professional respect in ways not previously experienced, and saw the work rapidly advance because of the collaborative environment created by the MO PQC and Simply Strategy.
The report of findings and recommendations is expected to be available later in summer 2025 and will serve as a guidance to providers across the pregnancy and postpartum continuum for optimizing care and engaging with patients and families to realize improved health outcomes for moms and babies.
The afternoon breakout sessions addressed key issues.
- Black Maternal Health Through History
- Building Community-Driven Maternal Care in Missouri
- Integrating Black Men and Fathers Into Maternal and Infant Health Solutions
- Establishing Support Through the Pediatric ER
The convening closed with final breakout sessions tackling perinatal mental health, crisis nursery roles, universal nurse home visiting models, syphilis elimination initiatives and the impact of community-based doulas.
What’s Next
This convening was more than just an event; it served as a catalyst for meaningful change in Missouri’s maternal and infant health landscape. By fostering collaboration and innovation, attendees left equipped with new knowledge, stronger networks and a renewed commitment to improving birth outcomes statewide.
Missouri’s birth story continues to evolve, and the discussions, insights, and relationships built during this convening will help shape a brighter future for mothers and infants across the state.