To improve maternal health in Harris County and beyond, there must be a collaborative effort on both an individual and collective level. The causes of maternal morbidity and mortality are multi-faceted and complex – crossing clinical, community, cultural, socioeconomic and behavioral lines. This will require not only community awareness, but community action. With the release of Improving Maternal Health in Harris County: A Community Plan, the initiative has outlined key areas of focus that will lead the effort to meet the goal of significantly improving maternal health in Harris County:

• Support innovative partnerships
• Improve data about maternal health
• Raise awareness
• Address unconscious bias
• Simplify enrollment into coverage
• Increase access to providers
• Support expansion of best practices
• Put reproductive care back into primary care

The role of Improving Maternal Health is to facilitate collaborative efforts across the systems level. Currently, the Steering Committee and members are putting the community plan to improve maternal health into action.