Birth Equity
OBI recognizes how social, political, and economic injustices have resulted in diminished health. We witness how these injustices – including obstetric racism and discrimination – adversely affect people before, during, and after childbirth.
To address these injustices, OBI is committed to fostering psychological safety and equitable, respectful care during labor and birth. The OBI team has a range of developing skills, expertise, and diverse lived experiences, and we lean on the work of other pioneers in birth equity.
OBI is striving to promote birth equity by:
Measuring What Matters
Improving hospital collection of patient-reported data
Educating Care Teams
Engaging and training maternity clinicians to promote health equity and justice
Amplifying Patient and Community Voices
Carefully listening to the communities we serve, through the Patient and Community Action Board, and centering patient and community experiences and needs in our improvement initiatives
Pursuing Transformational Change
Continually examining and improving our performance and incorporating equity metrics into our quality initiatives
OBI Patient Voices
Survey items assessing Patient Reported Experience Measures (PREMs) and Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) provide a standardized way of incorporating patient perspectives into quality improvement activities.
OBI Patient Voices collects patient-reported measures from over 70 hospitals in Michigan and informs quality improvement efforts that promote respectful, equitable care for all.
Patient & Community Action Board
The Patient and Community Action Board (PCAB) is a key partner in OBI’s efforts to improve health outcomes and eliminate inequities for birthing people in Michigan.
The PCAB bridges clinicians and healthcare systems, and the individuals and communities they serve, ensuring patient and community voices are included in quality improvement in meaningful ways.