Transforming Prenatal Care: Multidisciplinary Team Science Improves a Broad Range of Maternal-Child Outcomes

Every 8 seconds a baby is born in the United States. Maternal and newborn care are the nation's most expensive clinical services, and despite spending more per capita on health services, the United States experiences worse perinatal outcomes than most other developed countries, and even worse t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American psychologist 2019-04, Vol.74 (3), p.343-355
Main Authors: Ickovics, Jeannette R, Lewis, Jessica B, Cunningham, Shayna D, Thomas, Jordan, Magriples, Urania
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child development
Children
Clinical medicine
Clinical psychologists
Clinical research
Comorbidity
Delivery of Health Care - standards
Developed countries
Developing Countries
Fairness
Female
Gynecology
Health care expenditures
Health disparities
Health risk assessment
Health services
Health status
Human
Humans
Infant mortality
Infants
Interdisciplinary aspects
Interdisciplinary Research
LDCs
Male
Maternal & child health
Maternal and infant welfare
Maternal characteristics
Medicine
Midwives
Mother Child Relations
Mothers
Multidisciplinary teams
Obstetrics
Patient Care Team
Pediatrics
Perinatal
Perinatal Period
Physicians
Pregnancy
Pregnancy Outcome
Prenatal Care
Prenatal Care - standards
Protective factors
Research methodology
Risk factors
Sciences
Social justice
Social workers
Teams
Values
Women's Health
Womens health
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Summary:Every 8 seconds a baby is born in the United States. Maternal and newborn care are the nation's most expensive clinical services, and despite spending more per capita on health services, the United States experiences worse perinatal outcomes than most other developed countries, and even worse than many developing countries when it comes to maternal and infant mortality, preterm birth, and other comorbid conditions. We established a transdisciplinary clinical research team nearly 2 decades ago to improve maternal and child health through an innovative approach to maternal care delivery: group prenatal care. Our team has included psychologists (social, health, clinical, community), physicians (obstetrics, maternal fetal medicine, pediatrics), nurse-midwives, epidemiologists, biostatisticians, sociologists, social workers, and others. Though we come from different disciplines, we share a commitment to women's health, to using empirical evidence to design the best interventions, to social justice and health equity, and to transdisciplinary team science. In authentic collaboration, we have drawn on the best of each discipline to meet the triple aim (enhanced quality, improved outcomes, lower costs) for maternal care and to develop a deeper understanding of risk and protective factors for pregnant women and their families. This article describes how we leveraged and integrated our diverse perspectives to achieve these goals, including the theoretical and clinical foundations underlying the development and evaluation of the group prenatal care approach, research methodology employed, impact on the field, and lessons learned.
ISSN:0003-066X
1935-990X
DOI:10.1037/amp0000435