Measuring What Matters to Australian Mothers (MMAMs)

The Measuring what Matters to Australian Mothers (MMAMs) project is a major Australian research initiative focused on understanding and improving maternity care by prioritising the voices of the women who experience it. At its core, the research aims to develop nationally standardised, consumer-co-designed Patient-Reported Experience Measures (PREMs) and Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) that reflect the real priorities, needs, and experiences of mothers throughout pregnancy, childbirth and the early postpartum period. These tools are designed to capture women’s perceptions of the quality and outcomes of their care — beyond clinical indicators — and provide practical, reliable measures that can be used by healthcare services, policymakers and researchers to benchmark and enhance maternity care quality across Australia.

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The MMAMs study uses a rigorous, multi-phase co-design process involving maternity care consumers, health professionals and policy experts to ensure that the resulting PREMs and PROMs are relevant, meaningful and comprehensive. This includes literature reviews, iterative consultations and modified Delphi rounds to identify priority items for the surveys, followed by cognitive testing to refine them for clarity and relevance. Once developed, these tools will be piloted and validated with nationally representative samples, with the overarching goal of providing world-first, consumer-centred measurement instruments that help illuminate women’s experiences and support improvements in person-centred maternity care throughout Australia.