MetroHealth launches midwife program to reduce infant mortality rates
The MetroHealth System launched a midwifery program this month in an effort to drive down infant mortality rates in Northeast Ohio.
Amy Lowell, who joined MetroHealth in late June as director of the new midwifery program, said the first priority for the new program is a focus on the communities that have been hardest hit by infant mortality.
"Right now, we are going to be located primarily at Cleveland Heights and Brooklyn," she said. "And the decision for that was based on zip codes with the worst outcomes."
According to Case Western Reserve University, the infant mortality rate for Black babies in Cleveland is more than double the rate for white babies, with 15.4 deaths per 1,000 live births for Black infants versus 6.9 deaths per 1,000 for white infants. In Cuyahoga County, the rate is 13 deaths for every 1,000 births for Black infants versus four deaths for every 1,000 births for white infants.
Jazmin Long, CEO of Birthing Beautiful Communities, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing the infant and maternal mortality rate in Cleveland, agreed that providing this service to disadvantaged communities is necessary and equitable.
"I just think that this speaks to the understanding that it doesn't matter what our current population is, they deserve respect, they deserve to have dignity in their birth and they deserve to have quality care for them," Long said.
MetroHealth is providing labor support by using doulas from Birthing Beautiful Communities. Doulas are birthing professionals who provide information and counseling during pregnancy, comfort during labor and assistance with breastfeeding and newborn care.
Both midwives and doulas play critical roles in the delivery process, Long noted.
"Us doulas, we are labor and delivery support coaches," she said. "We offer the social support and they [midwives] offer the clinical support. Both are needed to really ensure that our families here in Northeast Ohio have what they need to have great birth outcomes and great experiences in their labor and delivery at the hospital."
Lowell noted that MetroHealth is adding five midwives to its program, which will improve access to care.
"That's going to mean that patients can get in earlier," she said, adding that earlier care can head off potential complications and relay important information to help expectant mothers make good decisions for their sake and their child. "Our job is to give you the information, to make the best choices for you."
Part of this work is countering misinformation, such as the assumption that there's no need to be screened for diabetes just because a patient's mother did not have diabetes, or the assumption that an epidural will not work or could cause paralysis, Lowell added.
"A lot of women come in with really false information that they've either gotten from family members who have good intentions or the internet," she said. "It's our job to dispel the myths so they can get their facts right, so that they can make the decision to keep themselves healthy and the baby healthy."
The program is also meant to engage more with expectant mothers to ensure they have more of a say in decisions regarding their child's birth, Lowell added.
"I would like our patients to know, besides getting solid care, that the relationship that we're looking to build with them is that they're an active participant in their health care and that they'll be listened to," she said. "Obviously, the end result we all want is a healthy, full-term baby, healthy mom. Getting there looks differently for each family, so I want them to know that they will be active participants in the care."
Lowell said her plans are to expand the program to add additional midwives over the next two years.
Kindland: Protection, care for Black infants, mothers drive two of Cleveland’s most passionate advocates
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Kindness comes in many forms. It doesn’t come as early (or as often) as it should for many. Yet, protection and care for the community’s most vulnerable is perhaps the greatest kindness of all.
Two Black women are doing all in their power to create change in the community for Black infants and their mothers, with the aim of giving them the best possible shot at surviving and thriving.
If you’ve spent any time reading this column over the last year, you know that helping the most vulnerable of us survive and thrive is perhaps the biggest kindness of all.
A Cleveland State University interdisciplinary research initiative called Survive and Thrive has been partnering with Birthing Beautiful Communities, a local nonprofit founded in 2014 for the express purpose of reducing Black infant and maternal deaths. Their initiatives are changing and saving lives.
In Ohio, Black women are more than five times as likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than the state average, according to a recent JAMA study.
In 2020, nearly 75% of the babies in Cleveland who died before they turned one were Black. Tasked to reduce infant and maternal mortality, the partnership was awarded grant funding from the Ohio Third Frontier (via the Ohio Department of Higher Education, ODHE) a few years ago to help the partnership in the development of a mobile app called “Thrive.” Heather Rice, Ph.D., assistant professor at Cleveland State University’s School of Nursing (housed in CSU’s College of Health), served as principal investigator for the Survive and Thrive team. Her work has been integral in keeping the funding and stabilization of the team’s collective efforts level.
App information includes “everything from a breastfeeding tool, kick counter, developmental milestones tracker, vital signs tracker and support ticket that allows mothers to request assistance with transportation and support services.”
New additions will focus on stress reduction, mindfulness and breathing strategies.
The app was developed in concert with Ohio tech company Big Kitty Labs, with a range of resources from workforce development training and job placement services, to “emotional support opportunities” for both mothers and fathers.
The Thrive app scores and synthesizes risks by category, creating an intuitively based, individual “perinatal pathway” for parents to follow.
“With my background as a pediatric nurse practitioner, I am passionate about how research can impact the work being done around infant and maternal mortality,” Rice said in an interview in 2021.
Being able to coalesce social and clinical data with the team and Birthing Beautiful Communities to uplift and support mothers and families has been a personal mission for her.
Mothering Together | Episode 1 – Birth Stories🎙️
Welcome to “Mothering Together,” an original podcast series part of the Maternal Outreach Movement, powered by Birthing Beautiful Communities. In this episode, Ro and Bijou dive deep into unique and powerful birth stories, featuring natural births, C-sections, and home births. Joining them is Jazmin Long, CEO of Birthing Beautiful Communities.