New Maternal Mortality Strategy Relies on 'Medical Homes'

Mountain Area Health Education Center’s ob-gyn program is part of a statewide initiative in North Carolina that identifies low-income women with high-risk pregnancies, and provide the women care through “medical homes,” reports The PEW Charitable Trusts’ Stateline. The medical homes provide the most advanced obstetrical care, but they also seek to alleviate nonmedical circumstances that could put mother and child in jeopardy, such as addiction, domestic abuse and a lack of secure housing and healthy food. North Carolina’s program is the only statewide pregnancy medical home model in the country. According to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the “well-defined and rigorous” program will likely become a model for other states.