On the passage, 80-0 of a bill (A-4930) requiring general hospitals to establish training protocols and treatment guidelines for maternity care, Assemblywomen Shavonda E. Sumter, Lisa Swain, Valerie Vainieri Huttle, & Britnee Timberlake emphasized the need to align, improve maternity care practices in New Jersey hospitals:
“Requiring development of standards for maternity care to be used statewide by general hospitals will provide the support patients deserve throughout the prenatal, childbirth, and postpartum periods and will help us meet the goal of reducing the number of, and disparities in, adverse maternity care outcomes.
“Employing a proven model for streamlining protocols, such as the maternal patient safety bundles created by the Council on Patient Safety in Women’s Health Care and the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal health, can only improve patient health and reporting outcomes in the state.
“Childbirth is about life and we must make every effort to preserve the joy of life and motherhood for all of New Jersey families. We accomplish this by ensuring our hospitals stand ready and prepared to provide the best maternal healthcare possible.”