Women, Infant and Community Wellness Section

NC Perinatal Health Strategic Plan 2022 – 2026

The NC Perinatal Health Strategic Plan (PHSP) serves as a statewide guide to improve maternal and infant health and the health of all people of reproductive age. The plan’s primary focus is increasing health equity, which is the opportunity for every person to have good health regardless of social and economic factors. The first PHSP began implementation in 2016, and the state continues to strive to achieve perinatal health equity. This plan, created for 2022-2026, seeks to address both the challenges of structural racism and of the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on the drivers of health.

The NC Division of Public Health (DPH) brought together more than 100 stakeholders from across the state, currently known as the Perinatal Health Equity Collective, to develop this revised plan (PDF, 11 MB) and will continue to work with public, nonprofit, and private partners along with individuals with lived experiences to implement the plan and assess progress. To get involved or to ask questions, send us an email.

Plan of Safe Care (POSC)

09/11/18: A federal mandate went into effect on July 31, 2017 that requires health care providers involved in delivery and care of infants in North Carolina (and all states) to notify child welfare when an infant is identified by a medical provider

as being affected by:

• Mom’s untreated substance use disorder

or having:

• Withdrawal signs and symptoms
• Signs of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
• A positive urine, meconium, or umbilical cord segment substance test with provider concerns.

This law also requires that a Plan of Safe Care (POSC) is developed for these infants. The POSC English (PDF, 2 MB) and Spanish (PDF, 2 MB) pamphlets provide basic information for patients regarding how and why a Plan of Safe Care is created. Agencies should download the brochures as needed.

Legislation was enacted by the NC General Assembly in December 2015 to establish the NC Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC). The MMRC is charged with reviewing all maternal deaths in the state to determine if pregnancy related or pregnancy associated.

The MMRC also has the responsibility to make recommendations for improvement. The DHHS was awarded a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grant to support the work of the MMRC in late 2019. This is the first report (PDF, 7.3 MB) of the MMRC based on data from 2014-2016.