Doing the right thing for women and babies: policy initiatives to improve maternity care quality and value.

When defined within the context of maternity care, the Institute of Medicine's six aims for health-care quality improvement provide a framework for Childbirth Connection's Maternity Quality Matters Initiative, a multipronged program agenda intended to foster a maternity care system that delivers care of the highest quality and value in order to achieve optimal health outcomes and experiences for mothers and babies. These aims also provide childbirth educators and others in the maternity care community with an ethical framework for efforts to serve childbearing women and families and ensure the best outcomes for women, babies, and families.