Throughout 2018, a number of strides were made to improve maternal health in the United States and Pennsylvania. This blog outlines some of the key legislative victories of the year.Pennsylvania Establishes a Maternal Moratality Review Committee (MMRC) - Earlier this year, Governor Tom Wolf signed Act 24 of 2018, which established a Maternal Mortal...

 1. "Why America's Black Mothers and Babies are in a Life-or-Death Crisis" - New York Times Magazine 2. "Lost Mothers" - ProPublica 3. "Why giving birth in the U.S. is surprisingly deadly" - National Geographic  4. "Deadly Deliveries: How hospitals are failing new moms" - USA Today  5. "The battle against infant mortality in Alleghen...

In response to our nation's troubling maternal and child health outcomes, JHF and its supporting organizations are working to re-imagine and redesign the birth experience—from care delivery improvements to payment reform, and from consumer advocacy to policy change. In December, JHF participated in two important conferences at the Kaiser Center for...

On November 16, maternal and perinatal health leaders and experts from across the state gathered in Harrisburg for the first advisory meeting for Pennsylvania's newly formed Perinatal Quality Collaborative (PQC). Over 60 stakeholders joined the meeting both in-person and virtually. The Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI) is establishing th...

The WHAMglobal team is excited to share the highlights and lessons learned from the Maternal Leaders Symposium on October 8. For an overview of the speakers and sessions from the Symposium, please watch the below video: If you would like a deeper dive into the themes from the day, as well as some key takeaways from the event, please download the at...

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-...

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 include...

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 (WHAMg...

More American women are dying of pregnancy-related complications in the U.S. than any other developed country. The rate of women who die during or after childbirth has been rising here in spite of a global downward trend elsewhere. From 2011 to 2015, more than 4,000 maternal deaths occurred in the U.S. I asked Dr. Liz Erekson, who is our interim ch...

On Thursday, September 27, the WHAMglobal team attended a luncheon hosted by the Women and Girls Foundation (WGF) for a policy briefing on women's issues in Pennsylvania. The briefing included remarks from Pennsylvania State Representative Leanne Krueger-Braneky, the first woman ever elected to represent Pennsylvania's 161st District. Representativ...