More about the Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance ~ βThe Every Week Counts: National Preterm Birth Prevention Collaborative is a two-year initiative aiming to safely lower the rate of preterm and early term birth within participating maternity units from across Australia and leave an enduring culture of better practice.
The joint collaboration between the Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance, Womenβs Healthcare Australasia (WHA), the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), and Safer Care Victoria, will use methods that have been successfully employed by hospitals around the globe for over 25 years.
Chair of the Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance, Professor John Newnham AM, pointed to the Collaborative as being a truly national force aiming to strategically lower the rate of preterm birth.
βThe National Collaborative aims to safely reduce preterm and early term birth across Australia by 20% through supporting hospitals in the adoption of evidence-based changes in clinical care,β Professor Newnham said.
βThe evidence-based changes were first developed in 2014 by the Alliance, and have since been successful in reducing rates of preterm birth in Western Australia, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory.
βAustralia is now the worldβs first to show that the rate of preterm birth can be safely reduced at a population level.β
WHA Chief Executive Officer, Dr Barbara Vernon, said that more than 30 hospitals across Australia would be involved in the National Collaborative.
βAustralia has pockets of excellence for safely reducing early birth, however wide scale adoption across all health services has yet to occur,β Dr Vernon said.
βThis model is designed to do just this and help organisations close the gap between what we know, what we do, and ultimately, prevent preterm birth and itβs far reaching impacts.β
During the Collaborative, participating hospital teams will be supported to accelerate their learning and develop reliable systems to ensure all women are offered the care and public health information that is known to reduce early birth. Teams will also be able to share their learnings with each other across Australia.β