Welcome!  It can be overwhelming to be pregnant or a parent of a new baby - remember you are not alone.  We may love our baby, or love the idea of being pregnant, but still experience sadness and gloom. You are not alone in your thoughts when they become desperate, gloomy, or sad.  This reflection by Author Terra LaRock, "When motherhood overwhelms, remember you are not alone", provides a picture into how many moms often feel. 

​

While pregnant, or after delivering your baby, people may ask you, “Isn’t it great?” or, “Don’t you just love being a mom?”  While their intention is to show enthusiasm and support, these simple questions can challenge us, making us question if we should be happier or more put together. 

It is important to reach out to neighbors, friends, people you work with for support. You may just find that they too remember how hard it can be. They may remember days of exhaustion, uncertainty, isolation, and worry. As Terra LaRock recalls, “Sleep does gets better, but as a mother, there will always be a sense of darkness that appears and fills your thoughts with doubt. It may not come frequently and the good will certainly outlast and outshine the bad, but it is there. Those words, so deep and true to me in the moments, helped walk me through a low point with the assurance that I was not alone, and that I would survive.”

Providers

The Maternal Child Death Review (MCDR)
The Maternal Child Death Review (MCDR) is a partnership with the Alaska State Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health / Women’s, Children’s, and Family Unit to reduce severe maternal morbidity and mortality.

Alaska Perinatal Quality Collaborative

The Alaska Perinatal Quality Collaborative (AKPQC) was established to promote high-quality maternal and newborn care across Alaska.

​

Current Initiatives:

• Substance Affected Pregnancies Initiative (SAPI)
  The Alaska Perinatal Quality Collaborative launched the Substance Affected Pregnancies Initiative (SAPI) in September 2021 with seven participating hospitals. SAPI engages hospitals in collaborative quality improvement following the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Breakthrough Series model.

• Substance-Exposed Newborns Initiative (SENI)
  The AKPQC is partnering with the State of Alaska Substance-Exposed Newborns Initiative (SENI) to promote universal verbal prenatal screening utilizing a validated screening tool.

• Birth Transfer Initiative
  The Alaska Perinatal Quality Collaborative has convened a multidisciplinary advisory committee to launch an initiative focused on improving maternal and neonatal transfers from planned community (home and birth center) births.

Past Initiatives:

• Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) Hypertension Initiative
  This initiative focused on maternal hypertension launched in March 2019. Using a collaborative quality improvement framework, the six participating hospitals were supported through monthly collaborative-wide team and data meetings, quarterly webinars, and technical assistance to reduce the rate of severe maternal morbidity.