[The preparedness of the Italian obstetric surveillance system in the response to the emergency of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: methodological aspects of a population-based study]. / La preparedness dell'Italian obstetric surveillance system in occasione della pandemia da SARS-CoV-2: aspetti metodologici di uno studio di popolazione.

This paper aims to describe the Italian obstetric surveillance system (ItOSS) preparedness as an element for a timely response to the new Coronavirus pandemic. ItOSS is a surveillance network that has been collecting data on maternal mortality and conducting population studies on obstetric near misses since 2013. At the beginning of the pandemic, ItOSS launched a new population-based project to monitor SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy and post-partum and promptly give back information useful to clinicians and decision-makers. All the regions and autonomous provinces, for a total of 289 birth units (PN), joined the study. Data relating to pregnant or post-partum women with a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection diagnosis addressing the maternities for outpatient visits or hospitalization were collected. The project methodology entails that each participating maternity reports the cases to ItOSS uploading data through an open-source platform. The on-line form includes sociodemographic and clinical data and maternal-neonatal outcomes. Biological samples to detect possible vertical transmission are also collected voluntarily. A total of 534 incident cases were reported from February 25th to July 10th 2020; 7 regions also collected biological samples for 227 cases; data collection is still ongoing.A preliminary analysis of the first 146 SARS-CoV-2 positive women who gave birth between February 25th to April 22nd shows an incidence rate of the infection equal to 2.1/1,000 in Italy and 6.9/1,000 in the Lombardy Region (Northern Italy). The brief time needed to setting up and operating the project, the national coverage, the adoption of shared tools for data collection, the quality and completeness of the information collected show how the availability of active networks like ItOSS represents a crucial element to hold a high level of preparedness in case of a health emergency.

Developing an Anti-Racist Foundations Course in MCH for MPH Students.

INTRODUCTION: Over the past decade, foundational courses in MCH have been revised and revamped to integrate the life course perspective and social determinants of health in ways that bring these essential issues to the core of the learning experience. Yet the racial reckoning of 2020 and the racially disparate health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic underscore that a deeper, more focused approach to anti-racist pedagogy is now imperative for MCH educators and others responsible for developing the MCH workforce. METHODS: In this paper, we discuss our experience of building a 'community of practice' of anti-racist MCH trainees through our course, 'Foundations of Maternal and Child Health Policy, Practice, and Science.' RESULTS: We identify four principles which guided our course: (1) building on students' experience, knowledge, identities and social justice commitments; (2) creating a common purpose and shared vocabulary related to racism; (3) organizing classroom activities to reflect real-world problems and professional practices related to addressing structural racism as a root cause of health inequities; and (4) building students' skills and confidence to recognize and address structural racism as MCH professionals. DISCUSSION: We hope that this description of our principles, along with examples of how they were put into practice, will be useful to MCH educators who seek to build anti-racist frameworks to guide MCH workforce development.

Allocation of pharmaceutical resources in maternal and child healthcare institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the outbreak of a cluster of patients with pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019, the disease was later officially named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), quickly spreading globally. Pregnant women and children are particularly vulnerable during disasters and emergencies. Comprehensive and applicable emergency preparedness and response are definitely important methods to prevent and contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The rational allocation of pharmaceutical resources plays an important role in the medical emergency plan. This paper aimed to share experiences for the allocation of pharmaceutical resources in hospitals focusing primarily on women and children during the COVID-19 pandemic.