The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Methods: Four organizations formed national and state partnerships to decrease tobacco use among women of reproductive age. The Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs, the American College of Obstetricians, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the National Partnership to Help Pregnant Smokers Quit have worked with state-based maternal and child health and tobacco control contacts, the ACOG chair and the PPFA affiliate in select states to develop effective partnerships. Employing effective health systems change concepts and processes, a national team worked with state teams to develop Tobacco Action Learning Labs in each state. Members of the labs develop goals, objectives, agenda, action planning processes, follow-up and technical assistance activities to use as they implement evidence-based approaches to decreating tobacco use among reproductive age women.

Results: Implementation of leadership strategies employed by each participating national organization has resulted in highly functioning, successful state and national teams. Approaches to using and documenting processes used to establish national level partnerships and to select and train state representatives will be shared. Data on the challenges faced by these teams within their states and on accomplishments at the national and state level will be presented. Participants will also have an opportunity to discuss how they might build their own MCH Tobacco Partnership Team.