Every April during Minority Health Awareness Month, we celebrate Black Maternal Health Week April 11-17. 2026 is the 10-year anniversary of Black Maternal Health week and the theme is Rooted in Joy and Justice, honoring the power of collective movement. While there continue to be unacceptable disparities in outcomes for Black mothers and birthing people, there are also amazing programs and people who are addressing these at the individual and system level. Black Mamas Matter Alliance recommend ways to engage with Black Maternal Health Week, including connecting with local Black-led perinatal organizations. Below is just a snapshot of organizations and events to check out and celebrate in Oregon:

·     African American Breastfeeding Coalition of Oregon

·     Black Futures Initiative

·     Community Doula Alliance

·     Healthy Birth Initiative

·     Black Parent Initiative Sacred Roots

Don’t miss this year’s presentation of Push. Register for the event here.

The four-month naloxone quality improvement sprint is underway! Teams across Oregon continue work to either implement or refine their existing processes for naloxone distribution to patients at risk of overdose on discharge from perinatal units. Key learnings so far have been that even hospitals that had previously implemented processes identified opportunities to refine and ensure that naloxone is making it out into the community where it can save lives. Hospitals also identified billing opportunities to ensure sustainability of processes, with a couple of hospitals offering to identify and document any shared barriers so these can be addressed at the state level.

All hospitals, even if not participating, are encouraged to review the Oregon Perinatal Naloxone Toolkit and confirm their local processes are reliable and consistent in providing naloxone.

Remember, Naloxone saves lives—share this one-page patient education sheet broadly in the community!

Perinatal SUD Initiative

As a reminder, beginning September 2026, teams will have an opportunity to participate in a quality improvement initiative that will support implementation of the full Substance Use Disorders in Pregnancy and Postpartum Toolkit, addressing stigma and bias on perinatal units, universal screening for SUD on perinatal units, common pain points in labor and delivery, and so many other topics! Formal enrollment will begin in May, but the enrollment packet is available now for local teams to review and plan. Hospitals will enroll and will work with community-based treatment organizations throughout the initiative.

Come to our informational webinar! On April 20 at noon leads for the Fall 2026 Perinatal SUD Initiative will be hosting an informational webinar to discuss what to expect from the initiative, important dates to know, and answer any questions that attendees may bring. If you are interested in registering for the webinar, you can do so, here.

Perinatal SUD Tools

As a reminder, the following tools are now available to support local work to optimize care of patients with substance use disorders.

· The Perinatal SUD Toolkit has been updated to include additional resources and incorporate important feedback from experts.

· There are multiple audience-specific tools now available for behavioral health/treatment, clinics that provide prenatal/postpartum care, lactation, pediatric, peer support/doula/traditional health worker, and social work.

· There is a brief document with resources for additional team members such as anesthesia, emergency departments, IT/informatics, payor/CCOs, pharmacy and security.

· The OPC and OHA recently updated the 2018 Oregon Pregnancy and Opioids Workgroup Recommendations which will be available soon.

· Reminder: We have multiple videos available on the OPC website, including mothers in recovery sharing their experience with perinatal health care, as well as example screening and vignettes.

Newborn Resuscitation

Teams continue to optimize their practices and measurement of newborn resuscitation! Onsite multidisciplinary simulations continue, and learning from sites is shared at monthly meetings.

In the last reporting period, a large jump in documentation of pre-briefs was reported,  and teams continue to share what they are testing and what moves forward to implementation from this testing.

Each meeting is a reminder of the amazing individuals and teams working to improve newborn resuscitation! The next meeting will focus on communication with families before, during, and after newborn resuscitation.

Preeclampsia is the second leading underlying condition of severe maternal morbidity (behind hemorrhage) in the Oregon Maternal Data Center. Teams who participated in the quality improvement initiative focused on severe preeclampsia in 2024-2025 are meeting again in April 2026 to check in on sustainability and share successes and challenges with one another.

One area of work was related to ensuring access to blood pressure monitors before and after delivery, and any learning related to this will be added to the BP Cuff Guidance document that was created during the initiative. Other tools remain available to all on the OPC website (Severe Hypertension in Pregnancy & Postpartum).