Session Details
Topic: MMRC Report
Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRCs) are considered the gold standard for maternal mortality surveillance because they use a multidisciplinary review process, draw on multiple data sources, and assess pregnancy-relatedness, preventability, and contributing factors. This presentation summarizes findings from Minnesota’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee Five-Year Report (2017–2021). It focuses on the top three causes of pregnancy-related deaths and highlights strategies to reduce preventable maternal deaths.
Session Objectives:
- Describe the purpose and structure of Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRCs) and explain why MMRC findings are considered the gold standard for state‑based maternal mortality data.
- Analyze key findings related to pregnancy‑related and pregnancy‑associated deaths in Minnesota, including major causes of death and examining contributing clinical, social, and systems‑level factors.
- Identify evidence‑informed strategies to reduce maternal mortality in Minnesota and apply this information to prioritize actionable steps for healthcare stakeholders and systems.
Presenter:
- Jennifer Almanza, DNP, APRN, CNM | HealthPartners
Topic: Substance Use
This presentation will explore how we make recommendations that will help patients prevent alcohol exposure during pregnancy. We will discuss screening for alcohol use in pregnancy and how to help support families to discontinue or minimize alcohol exposure during pregnancy. Participants will learn how to best support families affected by alcohol exposure by understanding the diagnosis of FASD (fetal alcohol syndrome disorders) and how to treat children and families with the diagnosis. Finally, we will discuss screening a case, including exposure and the support provided to the patient and her family. The session will emphasize nonjudgmental language and care coordination.
Session Objectives:
- Examine how we can prevent alcohol exposure in pregnancy and screen for alcohol use in pregnancy.
- Understand the diagnosis of fetal alcohol syndrome disorders.
- Identify strategies to support families affected by alcohol exposure in pregnancy.
Presenter:
- Adrienne Richardson, MD | HealthPartners
- Paige Jablonski, PsyD, LP | Proof Alliance
Topic: Perinatal Mental Health
Postpartum psychosis is a rare but severe psychiatric emergency characterized by atypical presentations and rapidly fluctuating symptoms that are frequently overlooked or misdiagnosed. This session focuses on sharpening diagnostic accuracy and navigating the complexities of acute management. Through a case-based approach, we will explore the critical window for intervention to ensure the safety of both the parent and the infant.
Session Objectives:
- Differentiate the clinical presentation of postpartum psychosis from other perinatal mood disorders.
- Analyze a treatment approach algorithm for the acute management of postpartum psychosis.
- Formulate a setting-specific response plan to effectively manage the stabilization and safety of a patient with postpartum psychosis.
Presenter:
- Tolu Odebunmi, MBBS, MPH | University of Minnesota
Details coming soon!
Details coming soon!
Topic: Congenital Infections
Despite declining rates of early-stage syphilis in adults, congenital syphilis continues to rise at an alarming pace, reaching 49.1 cases per 100,000 live births in Minnesota in 2025, up from 10.2 per 100,000 in 2016. This session examines Minnesota Department of Health surveillance data, enhanced case review findings from 2023–2025, and real-world clinical experience to understand why preventable cases persist and what providers across care settings can do to reverse this trend.
Participants will explore how gaps in prenatal care access, late or missed syphilis testing, and systemic barriers, including homelessness, substance use, mental health comorbidities, and incarceration, all drive preventable outcomes including stillbirth, neonatal death, and lifelong disability. The session highlights the disproportionate burden borne by American Indian, Black/African American, and Hispanic communities, while emphasizing that no patient population is exempt: 25% of maternal cases involved White mothers and 11% held professional degrees, underscoring the necessity of universal and not risk-based screening.
Practical content includes the critical role of emergency departments and family medicine settings in universal syphilis screening, the economic case for early diagnosis and prenatal treatment (a $5–$20 test and a course of penicillin versus tens of thousands of dollars in neonatal hospitalization), and emerging treatment options. Designed for a multidisciplinary perinatal audience, this session offers actionable, evidence-based strategies to close care gaps through compassionate, non-stigmatizing, and universally applied prenatal care.
Session Objectives:
- Describe current trends in congenital syphilis rates in Minnesota and analyze prenatal care and testing gaps most strongly associated with preventable adverse outcomes, including stillbirth, neonatal morbidity and mortality, and long-term disabilities.
- Justify the use of universal syphilis screening applied without regard to perceived risk factors for all pregnant patients presenting in any care setting, including emergency departments and family medicine clinics, using surveillance data and cost-effectiveness evidence.
- Develop practical, patient-centered strategies to initiate and complete syphilis treatment during pregnancy and apply principles of non-stigmatizing care to improve engagement among patients experiencing homelessness, substance use, or mental health conditions.
Presenter:
- Stephen Contag, MD | University of Minnesota
Details coming soon!
Details coming soon!
Topic: Congenital Infections
Congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) is the most common congenital infection in the United States, affecting approximately 1 in 200 births, more frequently than Down syndrome, spina bifida, and fetal alcohol syndrome combined. Yet most pregnant patients have never heard of it, and more than half of obstetric providers report never counseling patients about cCMV prevention. This silence has consequences: cCMV is the leading non-genetic cause of sensorineural hearing loss in children, and 18% of infected infants develop long-term disabilities, including hearing loss, developmental delay, vision impairment, and microcephaly.
This session examines the burden of cCMV through national prevalence data, Minnesota-specific newborn screening findings, and published economic analyses, including lifetime costs exceeding $400,000 per child with hearing loss and mean birth hospitalization costs of $149,000 for commercially insured infants. Participants will explore why prenatal testing is diagnostically complex, what current guidelines do and do not recommend, and how Minnesota became the first state in the nation to launch universal cCMV newborn screening in 2023.
Most importantly, this session offers a practical path forward: evidence-based prevention counseling focused on simple hygiene behaviors that a motivated pregnant patient can implement immediately and that a provider can deliver in under two minutes. Designed for a multidisciplinary perinatal audience including OB/GYNs, family medicine physicians, midwives, and pediatricians, this session translates a complex clinical topic into actionable steps that can protect infants’ hearing and neurodevelopment before birth.
Session Objectives:
- Identify the prevalence, sequelae, and economic burden of congenital CMV infection in the United States and Minnesota and describe the knowledge gaps among obstetric providers and pregnant patients that contribute to preventable cases.
- Apply an understanding of the diagnostic limitations of CMV serologic testing, including the roles of IgG avidity, IgM interpretation, and current ACOG guidance to inform appropriate clinical testing decisions in pregnant patients with risk factors or concerning symptoms.
- Select evidence-based prevention counseling strategies to deliver at the first prenatal visit, including specific hygiene behaviors shown to reduce maternal CMV acquisition, and identify patients at highest risk who warrant targeted counseling.
Presenter:
- Stephen Contag, MD | University of Minnesota
Details coming soon!
Details coming soon!
