The Mother and Child Alliance (MACA) is at the forefront of mother and newborn health in Illinois and beyond.
Our direct programs and various collaborations support successful outcomes for moms and babies in Illinois. We have also provided best-practice solutions for cities, states and international programs.
Founded in 2000 as Pediatric AIDS Chicago Prevention Initiative (PACPI) with a generous initial donation of $1 million and a focus on HIV, the organization has expanded our mission. We leverage our ‘safety net’ work to help eliminate perinatal infections in Illinois which might otherwise slip through the cracks of current care systems.
Our successes in HIV will continue as we work to expand services to prevent transmission of congenital syphilis and perinatal hepatitis B.
- Two decades of excellence
- inspiring staff, collaborators, and community stakeholders take action to keep moms healthy as they deliver and care for their newborns
- marshalling resources from governmental, state, care providers, partners, and countless individual donors both local and national to deliver coordinated care to moms and babies
- Coordinated network of providers ensuring healthy moms and babies
- 20,000+ nurses and health care providers trained across the state
- 300+ case managers trained statewide
- Safety net in place in all 125+ current Illinois birthing centers and hospitals
- Up to 12 enhanced case managers and other staff as needed to work directly with moms in pregnancy and post-delivery
- Helped establish legislative mandates for public health excellence
- Illinois Perinatal HIV Prevention Act [93-056] passed in 2003 and updated since to continue current mandates for testing and reporting
- By 2020, over 88% of pregnant women in Illinois got tested prenatally and had documented results before they delivered
- ~12% are evaluated in 3rd trimester at Labor & Delivery for testing
- Now 99.97% of women discharged after delivery have a current HIV test result – negative or positive they know their status!
Our Mission
The Mother and Child Alliance (MACA) reinforces a safety net during and after pregnancy for moms, babies and their providers to prevent HIV and other serious, costly pediatric infections in newborns. We strengthen disparate prenatal and postpartum systems of care in Illinois and across the U.S.
We accomplish our mission by:
- Providing community based social services and strong linkage to medical care for the pregnant and postpartum mother and baby in a respectful manner and without judgement or bias.
- Providing a statewide safety net for the clinical care of pregnant women diagnosed with HIV through the Illinois Perinatal HIV hotline.
- Engaging with state and national partners to identify barriers and solutions to perinatal HIV care and gaps in existing services.
- Partnering with national stakeholders to build capacity for perinatal HIV and other costly perinatal infections across the United States.