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Mother holding her baby boy in the nursery room
UAMS Begins Calling Postpartum Moms across Arkansas
| Part of Ongoing Effort to Reduce Maternal, Infant Mortality Rates Statewide
Nurses at the Arkansas Center for Women & Infants’ Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) have started calling postpartum moms across Arkansas to ensure that they and their babies are off to a healthy start.
“A UAMS nurse will call each new mom in the days after delivery to discuss any postpartum concerns, such as recovery, well-being, infant care or help with diapers, formula, housing, lactation support and insurance re-enrollment,” said Nirvana Manning, M.D., chair of the UAMS Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and director of the center.
The center then helps connect women to the care and resources they need.
This initiative, known as the Proactive Postpartum Call Center, launched its pilot phase on May 1, initially calling all postpartum women who delivered at UAMS. It is now expanding to those who delivered at other hospitals in Arkansas, once those hospitals have signed agreements to facilitate access to patients’ contact information and medical history. So far, six total hospitals are participating, with hopes of all 33 birthing hospitals participating by the end of the year.
“The Arkansas Center for Women & Infants’ Health’s proactive Postpartum Call Center is transforming how we reach and support postpartum women across Arkansas,” said Manuel E. Tejada, program director at the UAMS center. “By reaching out to them during the first six weeks after birth, we are connecting with these women at a time when maternal mortality risk is at its highest. That means that for some of these women, these calls can be the difference between life and death.”
He shared a postpartum mom’s recent response to one of the calls: “I am thankful for the hotline that calls to check up on you,” the woman wrote. “If they had not called, I would not have known to go to triage and would not have known that I had postpartum preeclampsia.”
Postpartum preeclampsia is a serious and sometimes life-threatening condition, characterized by high blood pressure, that can develop in women who have recently given birth.
“Our goal is to take the burden off families to reach out and ask for help,” Manning said. “This initiative calls all moms and hopefully allows for more trust and dialogue.”
In a separate case, a nurse and interpreter reached out to a mother who didn’t speak English and hadn’t been feeling well. The woman needed help understanding symptoms she was experiencing, and the nurse recognized that her symptoms required immediate care. The woman followed the nurse’s advice and went to a hospital where she was diagnosed with a serious infection that required emergency surgery and IV antibiotics. Three days later, she was able to return home and care for her baby.
“We’re proud to make this initiative available to delivering hospitals across the state,” Tejada said. “As the first statewide model of its kind in the country, it’s breaking new ground in how we deliver postpartum care. Addressing the state’s maternal health crisis will take all of us.”
The center brings together UAMS programs and partnerships that are designed to combat maternal and infant mortality. It was created thanks to a $5 million Congressional appropriation to UAMS in March 2024 that was championed by Arkansas’ U.S. Sen. John Boozman, in response to the state’s high number of maternal and infant deaths and findings from the Arkansas Maternal Mortality Review Committee, which showed that most pregnancy-associated deaths in Arkansas occur during the postpartum period.
The UAMS center aims to ensure that every woman in Arkansas has access to the care and resources needed to ensure healthy pregnancies, safe births and thriving infants, as well as necessary support in the postpartum period.
The Proactive Postpartum Call Center is one of three initiatives that the UAMS center is currently rolling out statewide. The other two initiatives provide postpartum alert bracelets and mother and infant supply kits.
The bracelets initiative began Feb. 1 at UAMS. Postpartum women receive a bracelet that says, “I GAVE BIRTH,” which they are encouraged to wear for at least six weeks. They serve as a visual cue to health care providers and emergency responders that the woman recently gave birth and is still at risk of complications, Also, a QR code on each bracelet provides quick access to educational information and other resources.
The supply kits, which contain items such as diapers, diaper rash ointment, sleep sacks, overnight pads and witch hazel wipes that support infant health and safety, started being given out April 7 at UAMS.
The bracelets and supply kits are being gradually introduced at other birthing hospitals across Arkansas.
By initially limiting each of the initiatives to postpartum moms who delivered at UAMS, the center has been able to fine-tune its procedures to ensure smooth implementation statewide.
UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,553 students and 902 medical residents and fellows. It is the state’s largest public employer with about 12,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.###