New ROOTS, Beyond Medicalization: Midwives and Maternity Care in America

Introducing the Jewish Healthcare Foundation's new ROOTS publication, Beyond Medicalization: Midwives and Maternity Care in America. Under the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is rapidly moving into a new era of healthcare delivery. Across the country, maternal healthcare policies are changing daily in order to ensure birthing families ha...

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Pregnancy-Related Deaths Reflect How Implicit Bias Harms Women. We Need To Fix That.

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This article originally appeared on STAT News: reporting from the frontiers of health and medicine. Laurie Zephyrin, M.D., is the vice president for health care delivery system reform at The Commonwealth Fund, a member of Women of Impact, and a WHAMglobal Board Member. I have had babies, delivered other women's babies, and worked in a bustling...

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Maternal Health-Focused Patient Safety Fellowship Kicks Off

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Where is the safest and most comprehensive perinatal program in Pennsylvania? How are maternal health practitioners factoring "implementation science" into their programs? On June 4, this summer's Patient Safety Fellowship kicked off with the unique opportunity to combine Jewish Healthcare Foundation's signature quality improvement methodology (Per...

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It was one WHAM of a weekend

It was one WHAM of a weekend

The Women's Health Activist Movement Global (WHAMglobal) connected with hundreds of women and girls on June 8 and 9 with two public events on the theme of "Birthing A Movement." WHAMglobal's mission is to identify the root causes of maternal mortality and better understand how to support and care for moms through the entirety of their care. At the ...

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The Pennsylvania Perinatal Quality Collaborative Launches To Improve Health Care for Moms and Babies

PITTSBURGH, April 24 – Pennsylvania became the 35th state with a Perinatal Quality Collaborative (PQC) (www.papqc.org) during a statewide kick-off on April 24 in Harrisburg with over 230 healthcare professionals and partners attending. The Collaborative was formed to promote the rapid adoption of best practices to improve maternity care for mothers...

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Overflow Crowd at the First Learning Collaborative of PA PQC in Harrisburg

The statewide kickoff for the Pennsylvania Perinatal Quality Collaborative (PA PQC) was standing-room only. The April 24 event at the Harrisburg Hilton was the first gathering of healthcare professionals who will work across disciplines to improve maternity care for mothers and infants and to prevent needless mortalities. "We planned for 150 people...

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Reinvigorating and Reimaging The Pennsylvania WIC Program

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The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as the WIC Program, has been a cornerstone in efforts to support the health of mothers and babies – physically, socially and mentally – for more than 40 years. By providing nutritious supplemental foods, breastfeeding promotion and support, education on healthy eatin...

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WHAMglobal Participates in U.S. Birth Summit IV

Over 150 leaders met in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from March 30 to April 2 to envision an equitable maternity care system. The Jewish Healthcare Foundation and WHAMglobal were among the sponsors of the U.S. Birth Summit IV, created and organized by the University of British Columbia and its Birth Place Lab. A Pittsburgh delegation — including maternal ...

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Pennsylvania Health Funders Collaborative Relays Legislative Agenda to Harrisburg Leaders

The Pennsylvania Health Funders Collaborative held its spring meeting with a dozen state legislators and administration officials on April 29 in Harrisburg. The 25 members from PHFC, a network of 45 health foundations across the state, focused on four areas: WIC (Women, Infants, and Children). For its 45thanniversary, Gov. Tom Wolf proclaimed May a...

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Overflow Crowd at the First Learning Collaborative of PA-PQC in Harrisburg

PA PQC

The statewide kickoff for the Pennsylvania Perinatal Quality Collaborative (PA PQC) was standing-room only. The April 24 event at the Harrisburg Hilton was the first gathering of healthcare professionals who will work across disciplines to improve maternity care for mothers and infants and to prevent needless mortalities. "We planned for 150 people...

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Jewish Healthcare Foundation Assembles Healthcare Leaders at the International Women's Forum in Barcelona

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During the International Women's Forum conference in Barcelona, JHF helped to organize the April 11 breakfast meeting for IWF leaders who share an interest in health and health care. The first formal program of IWF's Women in Health Care Special Interest Group — initiated by JHF President Karen Wolk Feinstein, PhD, and WHAMglobal Chair Debra Caplan...

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WHAMglobal Supports Zita Healthy Beginnings’ Maternal Health Workshop hosted on April 13, 2019

Zita's Healthy Beginnings, a nonprofit started by Zita Iwuoha to respond to the maternal health crisis in rural Nigeria, hosted their first-ever maternal health workshop for women of African descent in the diaspora. The purpose of the workshop was to explore the intersectionality of pregnancy and birth risks that affect women both in Africa and in ...

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PQC Announcement from Governor Tom Wolf

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 24, 2019 Pregnant Women and Babies Affected by Opioid Use Disorder Topic of First Learning Collaborative Harrisburg, PA – Today, the Wolf Administration joined hospitals, providers, health plans, and stakeholders for the kickoff of the first Learning Collaborative hosted by the Pennsylvania Perinatal Quality Collaborativ...

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ACNM-PA Holds the First Annual Midwifery Forward Conference

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The Pennsylvania Affiliate of the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM-PA) held its first annual meeting, Midwifery Forward 2019, on March 23 and 24 at Wilson College in Chambersburg, PA. WHAMglobal and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation were among the sponsors.  The event was for midwives, midwifery students, and other healthcare profession...

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First Meeting of WHAMglobal Board of Trustees Spans the Globe

The first Board of Trustees meeting of WHAMglobal (Women's Health Activist Movement), held as a webinar from the Jewish Healthcare Foundation's office on the afternoon of March 13, was a worldwide affair. Nadene Alhadeff logged in from Australia — local time, 5 a.m. — with strong coffee at hand. In Israel, Chen Shapira, MD, pushed back her bedtime ...

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WHAMglobal Symposium Gathers Worldwide Leaders to Confront Maternal, Infant Mortality Crises

On October 8, the Women's Health Activist Movement Global (WHAMglobal), a supporting organization of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF), hosted a Maternal Health Leaders Symposium at the Westin Convention Center in Downtown Pittsburgh. Nearly 130 local, national, and international leaders gathered to identify cutting-edge research and evidence-...

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Pittsburgh Members of IWF attend World Leadership Conference, Establish Special Interest Group for Health Care

Pittsburgh Members of IWF attend World Leadership Conference, Establish Special Interest Group for Health Care

For more than 40 years, the International Women's Forum (IWF) has cultivated strong leadership around the globe. The invite-only organization has nearly 7,000 members spread across 33 countries and six continents, with decision-makers from Fortune 500 companies, government, the non-profit sector, the arts, and science among the network. That includ...

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Kidsburgh Q&A with Karen Wolk Feinstein, WHAMglobal Founder

On October 24, WHAMglobal Founder Karen Wolk Feinstein, PhD, was featured in a Q&A with Kidsburgh. Kidsburgh is described as the "go-to online resource focusing on the people and ideas making Pittsburgh a better place to raise kids." In the Q&A, Dr. Feinstein discussed her reasons for founding the Women's Health Activsit Movement (WHAM...

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