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Maternity Advisory Committee

VISION: A Maternity Advisory Council that can leverage lived experiences of maternity care to inform existing and emerging policy and that is composed primarily of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC).

ABOUT: On November 1, 2020, the Department enacted a Maternity Bundle rule

The Committee provides input on existing and future Medicaid policies, shares their stories, and points out challenges faced during pregnancy and postpartum experiences.

The Maternity Advisory Committee is a group of members who have lived experience of being covered by Medicaid while pregnant, at labor and delivery, and/or postpartum. The MAC represents a diversity of different races/ethnicities, ages, number of pregnancies, locations (for example, people from rural Colorado), and pregnancy experiences.

The Maternity Advisory Committee meets online on the last Tuesday of each month. Members are paid to attend meetings and can live anywhere in Colorado.

To qualify for the Committee, a person should have had Medicaid coverage at some point during their pregnancy experience (including Health First Colorado, Child Health Plan Plus, or emergency Medicaid coverage). A pregnancy experience can include: live births, stillbirths or newborn losses, miscarriages (including ectopic pregnancies), and abortions or terminations.

We are also proud to introduce our Spanish speaking Maternity Advisory Committee, El Comité Colaborativo de Maternidad.

Como el comité en inglés, tiene entre 15-20 miembros. Nuestro objetivo es formar un grupo de perspectivas diversas de distintas razas/etnias, edades, cantidad de embarazos, ubicaciones (por ejemplo, personas de zonas rurales de Colorado) y experiencias durante el embarazo. Los miembros brindan sus opiniones sobre las políticas existentes y futuras de Medicaid, comparten sus historias y señalan los retos que se enfrentaron durante las experiencias de embarazo y postparto.

Join the Maternity Advisory Committee

Applications for the Maternity Advisory Committee are open in September and October of each year. Apply for the English speaking Maternity Advisory Committee by October 4, 2024. Applications for the Spanish speaking Maternity Advisory Committee have closed for 2024.

Contact Us

Anoushka Millear and Molly Kadota
hcpf_mac@state.co.us

Our Members

Kirsten: My name is Kirsten, I am the mother of three beautiful daughters with another baby on the way. I have been on Medicaid for all of my pregnancies and had different experiences with each one. I'm hoping that being involved with this committee and sharing my stories will encourage others to do the same.

Alexis: I am a mother of three children and a small business owner. All three of my pregnancies and deliveries were unique, as was my experience with the medical system. I believe this gives me a variety of perspectives and lived experiences that inform the opinions I share with this committee. Taking care of our mothers and babies is an important part of creating a healthy society, and I'm happy to be helping do that here in Colorado.

Rosaura Espinoza: Hola mi nombre es Rosaura Espinoza, madre de 4 y esposa, orgullosamente Mexicana, llena de sueños y aspiraciones, actualmente resido de la ciudad de Thornton, me  gusta participar en todo lo que tenga que ver abogacía y cambio para mi comunidad me gusta ser parte del cambio y así mismo darle un buen ejemplo a mis hijos e hijas para luchar por sus sueños y metas, creo muy importante contar las experiencias vividas, para mejorar o cambiar algo que no está funcionando, también para darnos cuenta de lo que si funciona, la salud es algo muy valioso que todos debemos cuidar, y el ver que se interesan por mejorar el servicio y escuchar las necesidades me hace muy feliz, y estoy muy agradecida de poder participar en el cambio para el futuro, y por conocer personas muy amables, resiliente  y empáticos  que se esfuerzan por escucharnos y hacer justicia, gracias por hacerme sentir importante y valiosa, luchemos juntas por un mejor mañana.