Maternal and Child Health
Our Maternal and Child Health (MCH) division works to improve maternal and infant mortality and morbidity through community engagement, advocacy, policy change, and meaningful collaborations. We build upon the lived experiences of mothers, birthing people, and their families to bring awareness of maternal health to the general public and equip them with information to engage in advocacy for themselves and their communities. We also partner with government, health systems, funders, insurance and community-based organizations to reduce systemic and individual inequity.
Watch our series MY BODY. MY VOICE. MY BIRTH. MY SUPPORT.
Watch our series Breastfeeding for the Win!
MERCK FOR MOTHERS
New Orleans, as well as many cities in the United States, has been in the spotlight for the current upward trend of maternal mortality and morbidity rates. Each year 700 women die from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications, and for every maternal death, there are 100 severe maternal injuries. This is notable in a country that also stands out as the only developed country seeing such a trend since 1990. Shockingly, a woman born in 1990 is more likely to die from giving birth now than her mother was 29 years ago. To go further, when a mother dies from childbirth complications, the data show the baby is more likely to die before its second birthday or more likely to drop out of school.
To address this alarming trend, Merck has invested in a $500 million global initiative entitled Merck for Mothers in strategic cities so that a woman doesn't have to die while giving life. New Orleans is one of the nine cities selected to carry out Merck’s investment in Safer Childbirth Cities over a three-year period. Through this initiative they have chosen three focus area to decrease maternal mortality, listed to the right.
Empowering women to take charge of their health, make more informed choices and demand quality health;
Equipping health care providers by improving training, fostering quality product innovation, and inventing digital tools;
Strengthening health care systems by advancing quality standards, making life-saving products available and generating evidence.
PARTNERSHIPS
To achieve our goals, we have partnered with the Birthmark Doula Collective and the National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC) on this initiative. The Birthmark Doula Collective will serve as a community-based partner and expert on community health worker models and doula care for women in New Orleans. Their experience as doulas and birth workers gives the project direct contact with birthing individuals and their hospital experiences. NBEC will facilitate the connections between community, research institutions and systems change for children and families.
Our work will focus on utilizing the stories of women with lived experiences and their families to:
Develop linkages to a city-wide perinatal community health workforce that works within the health system;
Create a patient-centered reporting process centering on community health workers (CHWs);
Coordinate Birth Equity training for health care providers within hospitals and advocate for local policies that support health along the life-course.
HELP US HELP MOTHERS
Recently we have been facilitating interviews and focus groups with folks on all sides of the maternal and child health realm to assess the landscape and be able to provide solutions for improvements. We’ve been conducting groups with:
fathers/partners that lost the mother of their child(ren) due to maternal complications;
mothers who had complications during pregnancy or birth, with breastfeeding experiences, or whose babies spent time in the NICU;
OB/GYNS, midwives and nurses (prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum care).
At this moment we are only seeking focus groups with partners and providers, so please see below for more information.
In honor of Black Maternal Health Week 2021, check out this resource we made for Black mothers!
Should I Get a Doula? Podcast
Launched in 2024, our Sr. Director of Media & Communications, Iman Shervington, goes on a journey to decide whether or not she should get a doula by speaking with doulas, birthing people, and an OB-GYN to answer every question she could think of relating to doulas and doula care.
Over the course of five episodes Iman hears firsthand about things such as the difference between doulas and midwives; how doulas support birthing families as a whole; the health disparities Black birthing people face and how doulas can help address some of them; what's needed to have a healthy pregnancy; how someone becomes a doula and what training they receive; how much doulas cost and how to find the right fit; and much more!