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 480 member organizations and over 700 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.

Recent Events

Equity in Action: Moving from Theory to Practice

On July 8, 2019, the March of Dimes' Prematurity Collaborative held a one-day training supported by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The purpose of this training was to engage and convene a wide array of organizations, draw on their unique expertise to create solutions together and drive improvements in preterm birth and equity, using our collective action and shared strategy and metrics.

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. We have been crowd-sourcing the development with our 700+ individual members as well as cross sector and interdisciplinary experts.  Once the framework is built, our progress and results will be available in a national scorecard or dashboard. The Prematurity Collaborative aims to take the following steps into this framework: 

  1. Identify root causes driving racial and ethnic inequities in birth outcomes
  2. Identify strategies and solutions to address those root causes
  3. Identify additional research and data needs that present as barriers towards improvements
  4. Create a container for our collective action as a national Collaborative
  5. Root our efforts in results based action
  6. Collectively create tools and resources to advance local and national solutions
  7. Develop shared measures to collectively advance solutions
  8. Support local efforts via best practice sharing and support

Collabarative Steering Committee Members

Birth Equity for Moms and Babies Consensus Statement

Collaborative meetings

View 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