CMQCC and CA-PARC Present at California Black Birth Equity Summit 2025

CMQCC and the California Pregnancy-Associated Review Committee (CA-PARC) recently presented at the California Black Birth Equity Summit on “Actionable Insights from the California Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review (CA-PAMR) Committee: Strategies to Mitigate Disparities from Cardiovascular Disease (CVD).”

Cardiovascular disease has long been the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths in California and the United States, yet few implementation efforts have focused on it since the 2018 release of the “Improving Health Care Response to Cardiovascular Disease in Pregnancy and Postpartum” toolkit (https://www.cmqcc.org/toolkits-quality-improvement/cardiovascular-disease). In the presentation, the CA-PARC team began with a journey map of a patient story. The panelists outlined the interconnected structural, facility, clinician, and patient factors that led to a preventable death, and contrasted that story with one in which key turning points were addressed, resulting in the patient receiving quality treatment, coordinated care, and necessary social supports—and surviving. The session aimed to help community advocates understand that Black maternal deaths are numerically rare (despite rates being three to four times higher than other group), while the number of pregnancies involving severe morbidities are estimated to be 50 to 100 times more common, presenting many opportunities for prevention. The presentation also emphasized the roles that advocates and doulas can play in raising awareness of urgent maternal warning signs that may indicate cardiovascular disease or other serious conditions during pregnancy and the postpartum period.