California Birth Equity Collaborative Improving Care for, by and with Black Mothers [CMQCC]

The California Birth Equity Collaborative is a CMQCC quality improvement initiative to improve birth care, experiences and outcomes for, by and with Black mothers and birthing people in California. Our team is comprised of partnerships among:

CMQCC
Black/Black women-led community-based organizations (CBOs)
Participating hospitals
State/national and local advisory groups

Background:

Since 1999, the reported maternal mortality data in California show a persistent 3-4x gap between Black mothers and mothers from all other racial groups. Also, maternal mortality rates nearly doubled in California between 1999 and 2006. CMQCC was founded in 2006 at Stanford University School of Medicine together with the State of California. Since CMQCC’s inception, California’s maternal mortality rate has declined by 55 percent while the national maternal mortality rate continued to rise. The expectation was that widespread adoption of CMQCC’s clinical safety bundles would reduce the gap in the number of maternal deaths among Black women. However, the difference in outcomes for Black mothers compared with all other racial groups has persisted.

Further analysis revealed that clinical safety bundles and social support interventions done in isolation, without an integrated approach, did not produce the desired outcomes. Thus, CMQCC’s Birth Equity Collaborative presents an opportunity to develop QI tools to promptly evaluate and transform birth care, experiences, and outcomes through the integration of clinical and sociocultural interventions and community-hospital partnerships.