About Us

The Iowa Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (IMQCC) is a multi-disciplinary task force that serves as the principal oversight body responsible for improving communication and collaboration among groups addressing obstetrical care in Iowa. The IMQCC engages a broad, diverse group of stakeholders, and includes traditional providers of obstetrical care such as Obstetrician-Gynecologists, Maternal Fetal Medicine specialists, Family Physicians, Certified Nurse Midwives, and women’s health nurses as well as Anesthesiologists and Nurse Anesthetists, rural General Surgeons, providers of mental health care and substance use disorder treatments, and allied health professionals.  The Collaborative also engages patient stakeholders in the form of labor and postpartum doulas and representatives of various advocacy groups in Iowa. 

The primary role of the IMQCC is to make recommendations to the Director of the Iowa Department of Public Health for developing and administering policy to support maternal health.

Objectives of the IMQCC include:

1. Holding quarterly meetings with the intent to promote high quality, evidence-informed, safe maternity and birthing care in Iowa.
2. Collecting and evaluating data to monitor maternal health outcomes in Iowa and provide regular, publicly accessible reports of this information.
3. Devising and implementing strategic statewide quality improvement initiatives which are informed by data and in alignment with national guidelines for perinatal care.
4. Engaging with key stakeholders including patient representatives and advocacy groups to promote collaboration and birth equity.
5. Inviting participation from all birthing hospitals in Iowa and striving to achieve balanced representation of these health systems within the leadership of the Collaborative.