Jewish Healthcare Foundation

Local, national and international leaders converged for a Maternal Health Leaders Symposium on Oct. 8 to showcase innovative research, practice, policy change and advocacy strategies to improve maternal and infant health.

The Women’s Health Activist Movement Global (WHAMglobal), a supporting organization of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, organized the symposium.

The Maternal Health Leaders Symposium featured a panel on translating research into action that included from left: Renee Montagne, a special correspondent and host for NPR News; Ginger Breedlove, Ph.D., CNM, APRN, FACNM, president and founder of March for Moms; Dr. Yoel Sadovsky, executive director of the Magee-Womens Research Institute; and moderator Dr. Jeannette South-Paul, chair of the department of family medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. (Photo by Scotland Huber, Jewish Healthcare Foundation)

Attendees identified promising strategies, including incorporating midwives and doulas into an expanded maternal care team, assessing mothers’ pregnancy risk levels and needed supports more frequently, and creating an accountable system to track and improve pregnancy outcomes. Nearly 130 researchers, health and social service providers, policymakers, health insurers and community advocates gathered at the Westin Convention Center, Downtown.

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From left: Debra Caplan, MPA, chair of the WHAMglobal board and vice chair of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation board; Tausi Suedi; Karen Wolk Feinstein, Ph.D., founder of WHAMglobal and president and CEO of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation; and Patricia Siger, board chair of Health Careers Futures, a supporting organization of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. (Photo by Scotland Huber, Jewish Healthcare Foundation)