2018 Report

Progress Update: November 2018

It’s been an exciting year for National Accreta Foundation! NAF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation in good standing, our board of directors is comprised of three officers and we are currently an all-volunteer organization with no paid operations staff. Every dollar donated goes directly to fund our programs and work to #preventaccreta.

Here is how we turned donations into action over the past 12 months:

Media Highlights

As part of National Accreta Foundation’s focus on advocacy and awareness, we continued to work with the media to help elevate the patient voice of United States maternal morbidity and to bring attention to placenta accreta & cesarean overuse. Over the past 12 months, highlights included contributing to pieces in NPR & Propublica, Quartz and The Guardian. Our Facebook and Twitter pages continue to provide valuable content to patient and provider communities interested in improving maternal health.

Event Highlights

National Accreta Foundation has been honored this year to be part of many important and historic events focused on improving maternal health. Highlights include presenting on the importance of reducing unnecessary cesareans in London at the World Patient Safety Summit in February and being a sponsor of March for Moms in May. In October we partnered with other leading foundations in maternal health to host the Champions for Change 2018 Summit: Influencing Change in Maternal Health. At this event it was announced that a Coalition of Patient Voices in Maternal Health had been created; National Accreta Foundation is an inaugural member of MoMMA’s Voices and serves on the coalition’s Executive Steering Committee.

Program Highlights

In April 2018 National Accreta Foundation delivered it’s pilot program of a low-cost, high-value turnkey solution to support nurses in all birthing hospitals in the state of Arkansas with information and equipment needed to support laboring patients and reduce the rate of preventable cesareans. This project was made possible thanks to our generous donors. In September National Accreta Foundation assisted The New England Center for Placental Disorders at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center with a project to leverage a variety of accreta patient experiences in the development of patient education materials.

Progress by month:

December 2017

National Accreta Foundation attended the National Healthcare Ratings Summit Awards Dinner where co-founder Kristen Terlizzi was awarded the 2017 Patients’ View Impact Award
NAF co-founder Kristen Terlizzi’s article “The Million Dollar Cesarean” was published in the Winter issue of the national bioethics journal Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics published by Johns Hopkins University Press

February 2018

National Accreta Foundation attended SMFM Annual Pregnancy Meeting
Co-Founder Kristen Terlizzi was named a 2018 Patient Safety Movement Patient Advocate, a powerful video on her accreta story and advocacy work was showcased at the Annual World Patient Safety Summit in London where NAF participated in a panel discussion on reducing unnecessary cesareans

April 2018

NAF delivered a pilot program in Arkansas to support nurses in birthing hospitals and presented at perinatal POWER meeting

May 2018

National Accreta Foundation was an organizational sponsor of March for Moms and presented at the Maternal Health Rally on the national mall
NAF Director Alexis Carena hosted a Heroes for Moms blood drive during the event
NAF was interviewed by the Faces of Postpartum as part of a series to highlight maternal near-miss survivors and bring attention to survivorship of placenta accreta

June 2018

NAF presented on accreta to the Peninsula Spring Mid-Coastal California Perinatal Outreach Program in Northern California and, thanks to our donors, provided labor support tools and resources to all attending hospitals

September 2018

NAF co-founder Kristen Terlizzi brought awareness to the Patient Experience of High Risk Obstetrics by presenting at Dignity Health’s Patient Experience Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada
National Accreta Foundation assisted The New England Center for Placental Disorders at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on a project to leverage a variety of accreta patient experiences in the development of patient education materials

October 2018

NAF co-hosted the Champions for Change 2018 Summit along with Preeclampsia Foundation, Every Mother Counts, Amniotic Fluid Embolism Foundation & 2020 Mom
This group would later announce their service as inaugural Executive Steering Committee members to the newly created MoMMA’s Voices coalition of Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Advocates

November 2018

NAF co-founder Kristen Terlizzi presented at Dignity Health’s Perinatal Leadership Summit in San Diego, California on how to Utilize the Patient Voice to Improve Quality, Safety and Experience
NAF co-founder Alisha Keller Berry presented on the patient experience of accreta at the Santa Cruz Area Fall Mid-Coastal California Perinatal Outreach Program in Northern California

Representation from National Accreta Foundation have served on the following volunteer initiatives this year:

National Accreta Foundation is an inaugural Executive Steering Committee member of the newly created MoMMA’s Voices coalition of Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Advocates
Optimizing Obstetric Safety Work Group, Patient Safety Movement Foundation
Patient and Family Engagement Work Group, Patient Safety Movement Foundation
Patient Experience Policy Forum convened by the Beryl Institute
Heroes for Moms, a platform for blood drive events focused on saving the lives of moms who need blood to survive childbirth
Stanford Health Care’s Patient & Family Partner Program
Co-Founder Kristen Terlizzi participated as a patient advisor stakeholder on California Health Care Foundation’s Engaging Consumers to Reduce Unnecessary C-Sections project