Proposed solutions

-Greater access to health care, particularly for women at risk for cardiovascular disease
-Heightened clinical suspicion in the presence of cardiovascular disease signs and symptoms
-Greater access to antenatal care
-More antenatal screening
-More awareness on the risks during pregnancy
-North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force
-Child Fatality Prevention System Summit
-Community Focused Infant Mortality
-Improving Community Outcomes for Maternal and Child Health
-Maternal Health Services
-Pregnancy Medical Home initiative, Pregnancy Care Management services
-Maternal Mortality Review legislation
-Universal screening
-Discourage accidental pregnancy and encourage reproductive planning (probably like clinics)
-Make information about risks more accessible
-Improve dissemination of maternal mortality review findings and recommendations to health
care providers

In the California study conducted by the authors, the results show that cardiovascular

disease was a major cause of maternal mortality, and that many of the deaths were preventable.

A major problem identified in the California study was that there were both patient and

healthcare factors that have have contributed to the maternal mortality rate. After the California

study, the CMQCC launched an initiative to reduce maternal mortality from cardiovascular

disease.

Many women in the UK receive antenatal care. The rate of maternal mortality in the UK

is lower than the rate in the US. The maternal mortality rate in the US could be lowered with

more access to antenatal care. Another way to lower the US maternal mortality rate is to improve

the quality of antenatal care and to ensure that every woman has access to preventative measures.

North Carolina has implemented many programs to ensure maternal and infant safety and

other states should do the same. If more states followed North Carolina's lead, the overall

maternal mortality rate in the US would decrease.

 Maryland needs an initiative to reduce its maternal mortality. Even though the Maryland

maternal mortality during 2011-2015 was lower than the US maternal mortality, it has still

increased since 2006-2010. Maryland is trying to reduce their maternal mortality, but they are

approaching it through drug abuse during pregnancy. This initiative is pretty recent, so there isn't

much concrete data.

Pluses: strengthens my paper; Drawbacks: takes time to dig deep enough Why is

maternal mortality still such a big issue in the US? Why hasn’t there been more of a national

effort to decrease US maternal mortality? Why isn’t prenatal care more easily accessible in the

US? What is the best way to increase accessibility to health care, particularly prenatal care?

What is the best way to convince cardiologists to do more screening for pregnant women? How

do we convince more pregnant women to seek prenatal care? Why is each state so different in its

approach to maternal mortality? How do we convince more states to actively try to decrease

maternal mortality? How do we educate more women on the cardiovascular problems associated

with pregnancy? What’s the best way to start an initiative to decrease maternal mortality?

More states should be like California and North Carolina, and do something like the UK.

All of the initiatives are pretty similar - they all focus on antenatal care. If a similar initiative was

launched in another state, it will likely have the same success rate as the others. There should be

an initiative in Maryland focused on cardiovascular disease during pregnancy - it could help

significantly reduce the rate of maternal mortality. Other states should also do initiatives, but

Maryland for sake of feasibility. All articles prove that maternal mortality is a problem and that

there is a way to combat it.