How Academic Centers Can Accelerate Partnerships and Progress in Maternal Health

Abstract

This chapter applies a socioecological model to outline the many ways that academic health centers (AHCs) can accelerate progress in maternal health, from individual-level patient care to scholarship and society. The discussion provides examples of innovative programs and policies at multiple institutions. An enterprise-wide approach to community engagement will require reconsideration of communities, moving from viewing them as people or groups in need of service to seeing them as assets who can help AHCs better understand and address social determinants of health, enhance students’ and trainees’ ability to provide care, and increase the relevance and potential impact of research discoveries. By engaging community members and other stakeholders as partners with unique strengths, wisdom, and lived experience, AHCs can be part of transformative solutions to improve health and well-being for every birthing person.