Building Maternal Health Capacity: Impact of the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Services Research
• Maternal Health

Background:

• Addressing the maternal health crisis, the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center (MHLIC) was established in 2019.
• MHLIC provides national capacity-building assistance (CBA) to maternal health practitioners.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate if MHLIC's CBA enhanced maternal health practitioners' confidence in their team's capacity.
• To understand how these capacity-building efforts influenced maternal health outcomes.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods evaluation was conducted.
• Included a retrospective post-test survey and semi-structured focus group interviews with 9 state Maternal Health Innovation (MHI) awardee teams.
• Participants (n=32) engaged in various MHLIC learning opportunities like coaching, technical assistance, and symposia.

Main Results:

• Statistically significant increases in team confidence were observed across all 22 measured items (0.5+ point increase on a 4-point scale).
• Qualitative data revealed improvements in equity, community engagement, implicit bias, data use, strategic planning, and sustainability.
• MHLIC's CBA was directly linked to these capacity enhancements.

Conclusions:

• MHLIC's CBA effectively increased maternal health capacity among awardee teams.
• The program fostered skills and tools necessary for achieving MHI goals and advancing maternal health long-term.