CMIPS/ISC Seminar

To strengthen the evidence base for maternal health, evaluation of state and federal policies as well as community and clinical strategies to deliver equitable and sustainable care, is critical. We describe two areas of current research that partner strong statistical thinking with clinical interpretation of these evaluations on maternal health. In 2021 and 2022 policies to restrict access to abortion-inducing medication and early abortion procedures after six weeks of gestation were enacted across the country. Evaluation of the effect of these policies has included outcomes such as fertility, infant, and pregnancy related mortality but investigation on measures of maternal morbidity is limited. We investigate maternal morbidity for pregnancies that began between January 2017 and June 2023, with special attention to a second major interruption during this period, the COVID-19 pandemic, by leveraging Bayesian stacking with interrupted time series models for counts. Second, we turn to a new hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial aimed at testing strategies for the delivery of postpartum care and postpartum outcomes and describe the rationale and design considerations.