You received this inaugural edition of the Burke Foundation’s newsletter, Starting Early, because of your interest in helping all children get the strong start they need to reach their full potential in life.
Like you, we work “upstream” on maternal and infant health and early childhood development — tackling root causes to prevent issues from becoming problems; stopping problems before they become crises.
Every other week, we’ll provide highlights of new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work in the field, and interesting takes on issues that matter.
Our promise to you: We’ll keep Starting Early lively and short – with plenty of links so you explore what you want, when you want. We welcome suggestions on what to include in upcoming issues.
This week, we celebrate Black Maternal Health Week, sponsored by Black Mamas Matter, to deepen the national conversation about the stark racial disparities in the maternal health care system.
1 Big Thing: U.S. Maternal Mortality on the Rise 📈
The problem: High spending on maternity care does not translate to better maternal health outcomes. The U.S. is the only high-income country where maternal mortality is increasing.
By the numbers:
- According to the Centers for Disease Control, Black women are 2-3 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.
- Even more alarming, a Black mother in New Jersey is 7 times more likely than a white mother to die from maternity-related complications and a Black baby is 3 times more likely to die before his or her first birthday.
Why it matters: Most maternal deaths are preventable. Improving access to quality care, insurance, nutrition, housing, wrap-around services, transportation, and paid leave, along with addressing structural racism and implicit bias, can significantly improve birth outcomes.
What’s next: New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy recently announced a bold, multi-pronged, multi-agency strategic plan to reduce maternal mortality by 50% over five years, reduce racial disparities, and make New Jersey the safest place to deliver and raise a baby.
Among key points of the plan:
- The community-centered plan contains 9 action areas with 70 specific recommendations — including a maternal infant health research and innovation center and a Nurture NJ Year-One Implementation Playbook and Toolkit.
- The plan takes a whole-government approach to address issues across 14 state departments, including such “non-usual suspects” as the Transportation and Labor Departments, recognizing that maternal health mortality is an issue connected to many others and requires outside-the-box thinking.
Driving the news: Governor Murphy’s proposed budget that begins July 1, 2021 includes funding for critical initiatives – extending Medicaid coverage for pregnant women for 365 days, support for prenatal services and care, a pilot program within the state rental assistance for housing support, a doula registry, and an analysis of the state’s birthing workforce – that will contribute to improve maternal health outcomes and promote health equity.
2. Dispatches from the Field: A Seat at Every Table
Meet Lisa Asare, Assistant Commissioner for the Division of Family Services at the NJ Department of Health. Lisa has long championed involving communities and multiple sectors in designing solutions that can improve maternal and infant health. She shared with us:
“They say that it’s dangerous to make a decision behind a desk. But I’d go on to say that it’s even more dangerous to make a decision alone. When I say ‘alone,’ I mean without folks who have that lived experience.”
Lisa recently issued an urgent call to address the maternal health crisis before a House of Representative subcommittee. She is among the women leading New Jersey’s efforts.
We discussed with Lisa:
- Disparities that exist in maternal and infant health for Black women in New Jersey
- Why it’s important to bring community representation into program planning
- How an innovative community doula program can provide opportunities beyond health
- The vital role government must play in bringing together different sectors to work towards health equity
“When I think about this work, I think about my daughters. And I think about those statistics that regardless of socioeconomic status, they are potentially seven times more likely to have a negative maternal outcome than their counterparts. That’s alarming to me and very personal.”
3. Saving Moms, Saving Lives
CDC HEAR Her Campaign.
What’s happening: The CDC launched the Hear Her Campaign to prevent pregnancy-related deaths by sharing potentially life-saving messages about urgent warning signs. Recognizing that fast action saves lives, the campaign encourages partners, friends, family, coworkers, and providers to really listen to a woman when she tells them something doesn’t feel right.
- As many as 50,000 women experience unexpected health problems related to pregnancy that may have long-term health consequences.
Did you know some problems due to pregnancy can happen up to a year after delivery?
Serena Williams, U.S. tennis player and winner of 23 Grand Slam singles titles, has been a champion for maternal wellness initiatives after her own life-threatening complications during pregnancy, sharing “every mother, everywhere, regardless of race or background, deserves to have a healthy pregnancy and birth. And you can help make this a reality. How? You can demand governments, businesses, and health care providers do more to save these precious lives…Together, we can make this change. Together, we can be the change.”
One Smile to Go: Reimagining Healthcare for New Moms 😀
CenteringPregnancy is an innovative group health care model where up to 10 patients come together in a comfortable group setting for their prenatal care and to share information about nutrition, relationships, labor and delivery, newborn care, and other useful topics.
Though hospitals and health systems increasingly focus on implementing safety protocols to treat pregnancy and birth complications, they’ve been insufficient in addressing the racial disparities in maternal mortality.
CenteringPregnancy participants are more likely to:
- Deliver full-term babies
- Engage in breastfeeding
- Have more appropriate gestational weight gain
- Report feeling better-prepared for deliver and more satisfied with their care
Why it matters: CenteringPregnancy has been shown to decrease racial disparities in preterm births for Black women relative to white women.
- It reduces stress and isolation that can contribute to poor birth outcomes and encourages knowledge-sharing among patients
What’s next: The Burke Foundation is expanding CenteringPregnancy and CenteringParenting to 50 sites in the next five years.
What a new mother is saying: “I ended up finding a community where I least expected it: at a medical office.”