Sense of Community
Improving Outcomes: Missouri’s Perinatal Quality Collaborative
Clip | 2m 20sVideo has Closed Captions
Partners across the state are pinpointing preventable issues in maternal health and working together
Learn how the PQC and its partners across the state are pinpointing preventable issues in maternal health and working together to drive education and action.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Sense of Community is a local public television program presented by OPT
Sense of Community
Improving Outcomes: Missouri’s Perinatal Quality Collaborative
Clip | 2m 20sVideo has Closed Captions
Learn how the PQC and its partners across the state are pinpointing preventable issues in maternal health and working together to drive education and action.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch Sense of Community
Sense of Community is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
[music playing] I'm Kaitlyn Thomas.
I am the Director of Maternal Special Projects with the Missouri Perinatal Quality Collaborative.
We're housed within the Missouri Hospital Association.
We provide a lot of technical support and assistance.
We have some structured projects.
Those are called Quality Improvement Collaboratives, and it really is an opportunity for those birthing hospitals to come together around a structured plan to implement those evidence-based practices around key topics, including things like hemorrhage and hypertension, mental health and substance use, as well as neonatal abstinence syndrome and cardiac conditions of obstetric care.
The Ask Me 5 campaign is really just simple resources that are for anyone providing care during that prenatal period or during the 12-month postpartum period to support them in having conversations with their patients around some key topics.
So the topics include high blood pressure, emotional and mental health, access to care, recognizing substance use, and trauma, abuse and safety.
And really, the goal here, is to build trust and facilitate openness with your patients around these topics-- --so that you can help connect them to resources, you can help them feel supported, and make sure we're addressing these things, because these are often what we're missing that often lead to those preventable poor outcomes in maternal health.
One of our big efforts over the last couple of years, has been around postpartum health.
Unfortunately, when looking at maternal mortality in our state, the largest portion of those deaths actually occur in the postpartum period.
When we think of postpartum, traditionally we think of six or 12 weeks after delivery, but the majority, about 43% of those deaths actually occur between six weeks and 12 months postpartum.
Medicaid, I believe, covers about 40% of the births in our state.
In 2023, Missouri actually expanded Medicaid coverage through 12 months postpartum.
Previously, it was only through 60 days.
And so that really signaled an opportunity to hopefully, address some of those drivers of maternal mortality for some of our most vulnerable populations.
Preview | 20s | Missouri consistently ranks among the lowest-performing states in maternal healthcare. (20s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 30s | OB/GYNs in Springfield and Columbia discuss the often hidden risks to maternal health in Missouri (2m 30s)
The state of maternal health in Missouri
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 30s | Physicians and maternal health advocates reckon with Missouri's troubling maternal mortality rate (2m 30s)
My story matters: one woman's path from addiction to advocacy
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 1m 50s | How unprocessed trauma becomes a gateway to addiction. (1m 50s)
Improving Outcomes: Missouri’s Perinatal Quality Collaborative
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 20s | Partners across the state are pinpointing preventable issues in maternal health and working together (2m 20s)
Eight times more likely: Medicaid, poverty, and maternal death in Missouri
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 30s | Maternal health advocates unpack what the program actually provides for women (2m 30s)
The Doula effect: increasing access to support
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 30s | Hear how rural counties has a chance for care and support. (2m 30s)
Care across distance: maternal health in rural settings
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 25s | Hear about the challenges faced by mom’s in rural areas (2m 25s)
Breaking the cycle: how peer support is changing outcomes for high-risk mothers
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 20s | Federal grants offer support and care for pregnant women struggling with substance use disorder (2m 20s)
Preview | 30s | Ozarks nonprofits strive to make sure no one goes hungry (30s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 15s | Ozarks Food Harvest partners with another local nonprofit to provide fresh produce for those in need (2m 15s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 30s | Joplin area residents come together each week to help a local nonprofit feed their community (2m 30s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 10s | A food pantry in Ozark provides, food, education and resources to those in need (2m 10s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 30s | Families in the Ozarks face difficult choices between buying food and paying rent (2m 30s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m | Volunteers make sure unused crops get to those facing hunger (2m)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m | Community fridges across Springfield are helping to feed those who would otherwise go hungry (2m)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 20s | Christian Action Ministries works to fill a need in Stone and Taney Counties (2m 20s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 20s | The Bear Pantry challenges conceptions of what food insecurity looks like (2m 20s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 20s | Climate Change in the Ozarks - Broadcast Premiere Sept, 22 at 9pm (20s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 5m 30s | Experts weigh in on the impacts of climate change on the Ozarks and suggest possible solutions. (5m 30s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 5m 45s | Climate change creates greater rainfall in the Ozarks, negatively impacting our rivers. (5m 45s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 3m 10s | Ozarks researchers work diligently to provide solutions to agricultural challenges (3m 10s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 3m 48s | A local farmer describes the challenges of growing crops in a changing Ozarks climate. (3m 48s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 3m 50s | As a growing population in the Ozarks consumes more water, the need for new sources arises. (3m 50s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 3m 2s | Native plants serve as a unique solution to the obstacles faced by Ozarks wildlife and habitat. (3m 2s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 3m 51s | Floating wetlands present a unique solution to the problem of algal blooms in the Ozarks. (3m 51s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 1m 45s | Young caregivers, often driven by gender norms, face challenges but grow personally (1m 45s)
Awareness Rising: The Future of Caregiving
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 1m 58s | Experts stress caregiving awareness; hospice care users share how it deepened their bond (1m 58s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m | Caregivers reflect on emotional toll, stress rest, reflection, and daily joy to reframe caregiving (2m)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 1m 58s | COVID isolation impacted personal connection's role in health and happiness (1m 58s)
Tackling Missouri’s Dementia Crisis
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 1m 50s | 130,000 Missourians have dementia; 250,000 unpaid caregivers face isolation, service gaps. (1m 50s)
Redefining Care: Finding Support and Recognition
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 1m 50s | Caring for a disabled child brings emotional, financial hurdles; need for better access to support (1m 50s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 1m 58s | Caregivers share emotional struggles while experts suggest therapy, and peer support for stress. (1m 58s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 1m 50s | Caregivers often experience depression, fatigue, and medical crises, and emotional strain (1m 50s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship
- News and Public Affairs

Top journalists deliver compelling original analysis of the hour's headlines.

- News and Public Affairs

FRONTLINE is investigative journalism that questions, explains and changes our world.












Support for PBS provided by:
Sense of Community is a local public television program presented by OPT

































