Federal Coalition

Coalition for Quality Maternity Care (CQMC)

In April 2011, nine national professional, consumer, and human rights organizations announced the formation of the Coalition for Quality Maternal Care (CQMC) to champion the urgent need for national strategies to improve the quality and value of maternal and newborn health care in America.

MANA is a Founding Member of CQMC

The Midwives Alliance is a member of the Coalition for Quality Maternity Care. Each member organization has distinct missions and strategic goals that coalesce around a unified vision regarding maternal and child health care (MCH) in the United States. The Coalition seeks to ensure equal access to affordable maternity care for all women and infants, to remove barriers to accessing high quality services, to reduce disparities in health outcomes, and to provide more maternity care choices to meet the needs of all women. The coalition members believe that reimbursement for maternity services should be based on models of care that are evidence-based and respectful of women’s individual health care choices.

Needed reforms to the nation’s health care delivery system have been accomplished with the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law No: 111-148.) However, the Coalition members and several members of Congress have recognized the need for more targeted legislative action. Such proposed legislation includes, but is not limited to, the introduction in July 2010 of the “Maximizing Optimal Maternity Services for the 21st Century Act (MOMS 21)” (HR 5807), and in September 2010 the “Maternity Care Improvement Act of 2010” (HR 6318). The Coalition seeks to advocate for legislative action that has the greatest potential to improve maternity care outcomes for mothers and babies and bend the cost curve of our maternity care expenditures in the U.S. The coalition supports the MCH-related bills that were reintroduced, or introduced for the first time, during the 112th Congress beginning in January 2011 as well as in 2012.

Advocacy in Action

The Coalition is formed as an alliance among organizations who agree to join forces for the common cause of supporting and promoting federal MCH legislative action aimed at increasing access to high quality, evidence-based, cost effective health care services for women and their families.

The Coalition for Quality Maternity Care is an alliance of nine Founding Organizations who form a Steering Committee:

• American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM)
• American Association of Birth Centers (AABC)
• Amnesty International USA (AI USA)
• Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN)
• Black Women’s Health Imperative
• Childbirth Connection
• International Center for Traditional Childbearing (ICTC)
• Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA)
• National Association of Certified Professional Midwives (NACPM)

Partner Organizations 

In addition, the following organizations have partnered with the CQMC Founding Organizations: Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum; Black Women for Wellness; Lamaze International; March of Dimes; Mocha Moms; National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association; National Partnership for Women and Families; and National Women’s Health Network. 

Actions Taken by the Coalition

(Adapted respectfully from www.midwife.org/, American College of Nurse-Midwives)

CQMC endorses federal legislation that promotes quality maternity care and advocates for continued funding for maternal and newborn health priorities.

Here is a listing of Coalition actions to date:

• CQMC Statement on Fiscal Year 2013 Budget
• Letter in Support of NEWBORN Act
• Letter in Support of Birth Defects Prevention, Risk Reduction, and Awareness Act of 2011
• Letter in Support of Stillbirth and SUID Prevention, Education, Awareness Act of 2011
• Letter in Support of the Quality Care for Moms and Babies Act of 2011
  • House
  • Senate
• Letter to Joint Committee on Debt Reduction
• Letter in Support of the Pregnant and Parenting Students Access to Education Act
• Letter in Support of the Breastfeeding Promotion Act
• Letter in Support of the PREEMIE Reauthorization Act

Joining the Coalition

Other organizations may join the CQMC as a member. CQMC alerts its member organizations to opportunities to help ensure quality maternal health care in the United States, for example by helping advance CQMC-endorsed federal legislation, or contributing to efforts to raise awareness about the importance of maternal health care and build a strong constituency in support of the issue. Each call to action would be accompanied by suggestions as to how member organizations can participate in these legislative and other opportunities such as by mobilizing your affiliates, speaking out in your community, or other strategies.

The CQMC invites member organizations to participate in whatever way you can, and there is no obligation to support actions or endorsements of the CQMC. CQMC membership is free of charge.

For more information about the CQMC and how to become a member organization, please contact Geradine Simkins, Executive Director of the Midwives Alliance at [email protected].