“The Quality Care for Moms and Babies Act of 2015 is important legislation that can significantly improve the quality of maternity care in this country and give more babies the healthy start they need and deserve. We commend Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) for reintroducing it in the United States Senate today. And we are grateful that Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) plans to introduce companion legislation in the House in coming weeks.

Our country’s infant and maternal mortality rates are too high, and our performance on prematurity, low birthweight babies, cesareans, early elective deliveries, and exclusive breastfeeding lags behind that of many other nations. We simply must improve the quality of care for both mothers and babies — and this legislation can do that. It would foster safe, effective, evidence-based maternity care for all women and babies by supporting quality collaboratives, performance measurement, and surveys that examine women’s experience with maternal and newborn care.

We thank the lawmakers who are pressing hard for passage of this essential legislation. Congress should make its passage a high priority.”