March of Dimes COMPASSION Supportive Group Model for Birthing People with SUD

As a leading organization in maternal and child health, March of Dimes is working to support healthy people and healthy pregnancies to reduce the preterm birth rate. With a focus on vulnerable populations with SUD and regions that need our help most, we are presenting a new supportive group framework, with available resources and structure to help individuals before, during and after pregnancy.The workshop will highlight the new Supportive Pregnancy Care Model COMPASSION and discuss opportunities for providers to be a champion for the health of parents with SUD and their babies during the challenging COVID times. March of Dimes COMPASSION Supportive Pregnancy Care is a flexible, group prenatal care program that aligns with prenatal care guidelines established by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The COMPASSION model addresses several concepts to provide quality prenatal care and aims to: foster health literacy and health equity by addressing social drivers of health that can impact pregnancy SUD outcomes; be culturally relevant to the variety of groups of individuals served; remain flexible, providing the opportunity for you to personalize and customize care to meet the needs of your patients and the needs and capacity of your practice; offer compassionate and trauma-responsive comprehensive care to people with SUD.The March of Dimes leadership will present the supportive model and discuss how the group framework leads to better care with better outcomes such as reduced risk for preterm birth and having a baby with low birthweight or small for gestational age (Ickovics, Earnshaw, Lewis, Kershaw, Magriples, Stasko et al., 2016); babies who spend fewer days in a newborn intensive care unit (NICU) (Ickovics, Kershaw, Westdahl, Magriples, Massey, Reynolds et al., 2007); have higher breastfeeding initiation and duration (Ickovics et al., 2007) and demonstrate better prenatal knowledge, greater readiness for labor and birth and higher satisfaction with their prenatal care services (ACOG, 2018; Ickovics et al., 2007) in addition to reducing the risk of a subsequent preterm birthVRudolf will discuss the curriculum dedicated to SUD and how the information provided helps providers in planning and implementing a successful COMPASSION Supportive Pregnancy Care program in their practice or system. A collaborative approach would be fostered for working together to improve the care birthing people receive to feel content in life and healthy for self and parenting, so that every person with SUD and baby can have the best possible start.Mollie Nisen and Lisa Voltarelli will discuss their leadership role as addiction fellows in creating the COMPASSION model and ways to foster ongoing MOUD, family outreach and comprehensive trauma-informed care.