Rhode Island Pregnancy and Postpartum Death Review Committee - Rhode Island Maternal and Child Health is providing comprehensive support to the Pregnancy & Postpartum Death Review program including the identification, abstraction, reviewing, and reporting of perinatal deaths in RI in accordance with RI General Law §23-4-3 through Cooperative Agreement with CDC’s ERASE Maternal Mortality. The death of a birthing person during pregnancy, at delivery, or in the year after the end of the pregnancy is a tragedy that RI’s PPDRC aims to understand and ultimately prevent. RIDOH MCH acknowledges the preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum health of Rhode Islanders is impacted by systemic racism, discrimination, unaddressed language barriers, and a lack of culturally responsive providers; and seeks to address these inequities through committee review and recommendation. RIDOH MCH identifies and abstracts pregnancy-associated deaths and convenes the PPDRC - a diverse multidisciplinary committee that reviews, characterizes, and disseminates information on pregnancy-associated deaths and recommendations on opportunities for prevention. RIDOH MCH will continue to improve data quality through supporting the key informant interview process and ensuring data is entered into MMRIA in a timely and accurate manner, increase support to PPDRC membership and review meetings, and to inform policies and projects based on committee recommendations. RIDOH intends to collaborate with CDC and ERASE MM partners in addressing these strategies. Through these efforts, RIDOH MCH anticipates an increase in timeliness, accuracy, and standardization of information available about pregnancy-related deaths, including identified opportunities for prevention; an increase in engagement and cooperation between PPDRC, partners, and communities to communicate information from data on pregnancy-related deaths; and an increase in the availability of PPDRC recommendations among communities, clinicians, public health practitioners, and decision makers. Further, RIDOH MCH works to increase the adoption of clinical and non-clinical policies that reflect the highest standards of care and to increase implementation of recommendations that consider the needs of populations disproportionately affected by pregnancy-related mortality. It is the intention of RIDOH MCH to save lives of pregnant and postpartum individuals.
