Two SLU researchers collaborate to reduce infant mortality rates

Two Saint Louis University researchers are collaborating to reduce infant mortality rates while improving health care services to pregnant women and new mothers.

Katherine Mathews, M.D., MPH, MBA, SLUCare OB/GYN and associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and women's health at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, received a $76,547 grant from Missouri Foundation for Health through SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital to create an integrated program to help pregnant women and new mothers while reducing infant mortality.

Pamela Xaverius, Ph.D., assistant professor of epidemiology in the College for Public Health and Social Justice, is a collaborator on the grant and has overseen evaluation of the pilot program.

The pilot brings together partner organizations including Saint Louis University's College for Public Health and Social Justice and Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Women's Health; SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital and its Centering Pregnancy program; and Nurses for Newborns.

"The bottom line is to create health care systems or pathways that are easy to use and responsive to the real life challenges that women face and their most pressing family, health and emotional concerns," Mathews said. "For me this includes pathways for getting into our healthcare services and those that bridge our services to other support services and resources within the community.

She added, 'It means a huge focus on collaboration."

Mathews credits SSM's Kate Becker, now the president of SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital, for the vision behind the grant to integrate the models of Centering Pregnancy and Nurses for Newborns.

It targets service delivery fragmentation, system complexity, and their respective effects on individual women as one strategy to combat high regional rates of infant mortality particularly among St. Louis African American women who have a one in five chance of delivering a preterm infant.

"We are streamlining the system by building on the well documented strengths of Centering and Nurses for Newborns," Mathews said. "They are different and yet highly complementary programs. We think this will enhance the ability of women at risk for poor perinatal outcomes to obtain appropriate support services and health care before, during, and after pregnancy."

Mathews noted that in this first year of grant funding, the main outcome has to been to get clarity on how we can improve the way we deliver care from a patient perspective.

"This is very holistic and person-centered," Mathews said. "We are treating the whole person - the earlier we can work with women, the better the outcomes for both mom and family."

Some of the services provided by the integrated programs include support-focused group prenatal care and coordinated work with Nurses for Newborns to ensure speedy access to needed social services.