A UW CHWS study on the maternal and child health (MCH) workforce, led by Paula Kett, UW CHWS Deputy Director and Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the UW School of Medicine, was recently featured in UW Medicine Newsroom.
The study team developed the MCH Worker Supportive Policy Index, which measures how state policies support the maternal and child health (MCH) workforce across four domains: midwifery workforce, doula workforce, labor policy, and economic policy.
Findings, recently published in a Health Affairs Scholar paper titled “State variations in maternal and child health workforce support,” demonstrate wide variation across states and suggest that more supportive policies, such as independent scope of practice for certified nurse midwives and Medicaid reimbursement for doulas may help strengthen the MCH workforce and improve perinatal outcomes, including greater certified nurse midwife supply, fewer maternity care deserts, and lower cesarean delivery rates.
Read the UW Medicine Newsroom article and check out the cited study below:
Comparing State-Level Supports for the Maternal and Child Health Workforce: Development of a State-Level Index