Prematurity Collaborative

The March of Dimes Prematurity Collaborative aims to achieve equity and demonstrated improvements in preterm birth. Premature birth (before 37 weeks of pregnancy) and its complications are the leading contributors to infant death and disability in the United States.

The Prematurity Collaborative has 340 member organizations and over 600 individual members all working together to achieve equity and demonstrated improvements in preterm birth prevention. A strategic map identifies the critical strategies that guide Collaborative Work Group activities. March of Dimes provides backbone support.

Upcoming Events

Equity in Action: Moving from Theory to Practice Training

July 8, 2019
8am-5pm
Hilton Bonnet Creek Hotel, Orlando Florida

Join us for a one-day workshop to learn how to build and sustain a local birth equity collaborative. Participants will synthesize previous health equity learnings and take the next steps towards action on driving results to create equitable birth outcomes. Attendees will gain knowledge, tools and training necessary to initiate community-led collaboration to drive improvements in equity and birth outcomes.  Training will include implicit bias and structural racism as well as the essential building blocks to establish local community-led collaboratives utilizing Collective Impact and Results Based Accountability. Register here and stay and participate in the NACCHO Annual Conference from the 9th-11th, register here.

AGENDA:
9:00 Welcome
9:15-10:15 am Opening Plenary
          Dr. Zea Malawa, MD, MPH, Program Manager for Expecting Justice-San Francisco
          Collective Impact for Healthy Birth, San Francisco Department of Health
10:15-10:30 am Break
10:30am-12:00 March of Dimes New Implicit Bias Training
12:00-12:45 pm Networking Lunch
12:45-3:45 pm Building Local Collaboratives 101
           Dr. Michael McAfee EdD, EMPA, President & CEO, PolicyLink
3:45-5:00 pm A Fireside Chat
           Rev. Tommy Rodgers, Pastor, Bethlehem Baptist Church & Healthy Start;
           Abbie Gilbert, Corporate Strategy Lead-Population Health, Humana;
           Bernadette M. Kerrigan, MSSA, LISW, SPHR, Executive Director, First Year Cleveland
           Lisa Skjefte, Health Equity Specialist, Children’s Minnesota

Building a Results Framework

The Collaborative is working to build a results framework to drive improvements in equity in preterm birth. Since our May 2018 Summit, The Prematurity Collaborative has been moving towards the development of this framework and transitioning to results-based work. We are operationalizing our strategic map to measure and demonstrate our efforts and progress. This work is being underwritten by a CDC grant, which has allowed us to partner with Clear Impact--expert consultants in Results Based Accountability. Once the framework is built, our progress will be illustrated in a national dashboard. The Prematurity Collaborative aims to take the following steps into this framework: 

  1. Identify key factors driving inequities in preterm birth
  2. Perform research and examine root causes
  3. Prioritize key factors and root causes gathered from the research
  4. Identify strategies, performance metrics and interventions

Please join us on May 22nd from 2:00-3:30 PM ET to engage in this guaranteed robust conversation! You may register for the webinar here or email at collaborative@marchofdimes.org. 

Collobarative Steering Committee Members

Birth Equity for Moms and Babies Consensus Statement

​Collaborative meetings

View the 2018 meeting schedule and the 2019 meeting schedule for the full Collaborative, steering committee and workgroups. To receive meeting notices and become a participant in a Workgroup and/or the full Collaborative, or to receive the Collaborative newsletter, complete this sign-up form or email us at collaborative@marchofdimes.org. Collaborative newsletters are available here.

Collaborative Work Group Resources and Accomplishments

Clinical and Public Health Practice Workgroup

  1. 2018/2019 Work Plan
  2. Progesterone (17P) to reduce recurrent preterm birth
  3. Upcoming meetings

Communications Work Group

  1. The March of Dimes has been working on evidence-based equity messaging with the Frameworks Institute®-a group of social scientists who develop evidence-based ways of framing issues for the public. View Dr. Julie Sweetland, VP for Strategy and Innovation at the FrameWorks Institute®, discuss how to talk about health equity for moms and babies on this recording and use the slide deck  and this two-page document for additional information.
  2. Upcoming meetings

Health Equity Workgroup

  1. 2018/2019 Work Plan
  2. ​Health equity issue briefs, key articles and statements, including the Prematurity Collaborative’s Guiding Principles to Achieving Equity in Preterm Birth
  3. Health equity toolkits and resource guides
  4. Health disparities data
  5. Health equity videos and webinars
  6. Health equity initiatives and other resources
  7. Upcoming meetings

Policy Work Group

  1. 2018/2019 Work Plan
  2. Upcoming meetings

2017/2018 Accomplishments