Early Findings

The overall goal of Fetal and Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) programs is to enhance the health and well-being of women, infants and families by improving the community resources and service delivery systems available to them. While FIMR has been in existence for more than a decade, and there have been a number of case studies and anec-dotal reports of its value in improving perinatal health services delivery systems, a systematic nationwide evaluation of its impact in the community has not been previously conducted. In 1996, the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) awarded funds to the Women’s and Children’s Health Policy Center (WCHPC) at the Johns Hopkins University to examine FIMRs nationwide and their impact on perinatal health care systems. Since 1984, the MCHB has maintained a commitment to implementation of FIMR programs as a community strategy to assess and strengthen the resources that support and promote the health and well-being of women, infants and families. This effort has been aided by collaborations with several key partners including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. FIMR programs bring together community members to review information from individual cases of fetal and infant death in order to examine the social, economic, cultural, safety and health systems factors that are associated with them. Based on the review findings, FIMRs make recommendations for interventions and policies that address these factors, participate in or facilitate implementation of the recommended strategies and policies