Show Notes

Air Date: April 10, 2024

Black Maternal Health Week is a reminder that so many families experience pain, neglect, and loss during what should be one of the most joyous times of their lives. It's an urgent call for action. Black women in America are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women, regardless of their income or education.

Last year, President Biden made an urgent call to action, proclaiming April 11th through the 17th, a time to embrace and focus on black maternal health.

In today’s episode we have Veronica Milliner from the NNLM All of Us Program Center and April Wright from Region 1 to tell us more about the effort that NNLM has made in bringing together a task force specifically aimed at celebrating Black Maternal Health Week.

NNLM is hosting two online classes this week, which are mentioned in this episode: 
April 11th: https://www.nnlm.gov/training/class/unveiling-power-community-partnerships-transforming-black-maternal-health-outreach 
April 17th: https://www.nnlm.gov/training/class/life-after-2-losses-support-advocacy-and-health-literacy-healthy-pregnancy

The NNLM is the outreach arm of the National Library of Medicine with the mission to advance the progress of medicine and improve public health by providing all U.S. health professionals with equal access to biomedical information and improving the public's access to information to enable them to make informed decisions about their health. All of the artwork for this podcast series has been created with a generative AI image-to-image tool! The prompt for this episode was “an abstract painting celebrating Black Maternal Health.

We want your feedback! Please click on this link to offer your opinions about the NNLM Podcast!

Transcript

00;00;02;23 - 00;00;40;02
Yamila El-Khayat
I’m librarian Yamila El-Khayat and this is NNLM Discovery, a podcast from the Network of the National Library of Medicine. Today’s episode is, Black Maternal Health Week, a multi-region story. Last year, President Biden made an urgent call to action, proclaiming April 11th through the 17th, a time to embrace and focus on black maternal health. We have Veronica Milliner from the NNLM All of Us Program Center and April Wright from Region 1 to tell us more about the effort that NNLM has made in bringing together a task force specifically aimed at celebrating Black Maternal Health Week.

00;00;40;04 - 00;00;41;02
Yamila El-Khayat
Hi, April.

00;00;41;04 - 00;00;43;10
April Wright
Hi Yamila! Thanks for having us on.

00;00;43;12 - 00;00;44;24
Yamila El-Khayat
Hi, Veronica.

00;00;44;26 - 00;00;47;06
Veronica Milliner
Hi, Yamila. Great to be here. Thanks.

00;00;47;08 - 00;00;53;23
Yamila El-Khayat
So let's kick off our story today. Can you tell me what is Black Maternal Health Week?

00;00;53;25 - 00;01;17;23
April Wright
Sure. Well, Black Maternal Health Week is a reminder that so many families experience pain, neglect and loss during what should be one of the most joyous times of their lives. It's an urgent call for action. Black women in America are three times more likely to die from pregnancy related complications than white women, regardless of their income or education.

00;01;17;26 - 00;01;30;22
Veronica Milliner
And this is on top of the fact that all women in America are dying at higher rates from pregnancy related causes than in any other developed nation. Double the amount. And that number has only been rising since 2021.

00;01;30;25 - 00;01;35;03
Yamila El-Khayat
So how did Black Maternal Health Week get started?

00;01;35;05 - 00;02;04;08
April Wright
Well, this week long campaign held annually on April 11th through the 17th, it coincides with National Minority Health Month, was founded and led by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance to build awareness, activism and community building to amplify the voices, perspectives and lived experiences of black mothers and birthing people. So Black Maternal Health Week is, you know, it truly is an urgent call to action.

00;02;04;10 - 00;02;23;20
Veronica Milliner
The vision of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance is that all black mamas have the rights, respect, and resources to thrive before, during, and after pregnancy. So this week is important for awareness. But to make a change, it takes policy changes, research, and a huge cultural shift. So this week is only just the beginning.

00;02;23;23 - 00;02;35;03
Yamila El-Khayat
So this has grown beyond the Black Mamas Matter Alliance into presidential proclamations. Tell me more about the growth of this campaign. How has this proclamation helped?

00;02;35;05 - 00;03;14;16
Veronica Milliner
Yeah. So April 13th, 2021, marked the first year the president issued a proclamation around Black Maternal Health Week. And since then, the White House blueprint for Maternal Health was released in June 2022. It outlines strategies, goals, initiatives aimed at improving maternal health outcomes for all pregnant people across the United States. This includes efforts to reduce maternal mortality rates, address racial disparities in maternal health, improve access to prenatal and postpartum care, and enhance support for maternal mental health, among many other objectives.

00;03;14;18 - 00;03;22;26
Veronica Milliner
This provides some necessary support and guidance for continued awareness of this health inequality towards solutions.

00;03;22;29 - 00;03;45;02
April Wright
For instance, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Rescue Plan gave states the option to provide a full year of postpartum coverage to Medicaid beneficiaries rather than just 60 days. Rather than that option expiring, it's now become permanent.

00;03;45;04 - 00;03;54;28
Yamila El-Khayat
When did NNLM start promoting and providing education resources for Black Maternal Health Week? And tell me more about what was done in the past.

00;03;55;00 - 00;04;14;23
April Wright
Well, NNLM has offered programing observing Black Maternal Health Week for the past three years. Last year we hosted four events, which covered the past, present, and future of black maternal health. And this year, we're hosting two events. Both highlighting NNLM funded projects.

00;04;14;25 - 00;04;25;24
Yamila El-Khayat
So tomorrow's April 11th and the start of Black Maternal Health Week. Tell us about the two events you're hosting and what NNLM projects you're highlighting.

00;04;25;26 - 00;04;56;05
Veronica Milliner
Sure. So on April 11th, from 2 to 3 p.m. eastern we’ll host a webinar called “Unveiling the Power of Community Partnerships,” where Sarah Montrichard-Ramón Cabrera from the Brooklyn Public Library will provide information about the library's successful past and upcoming public programs on black maternal health. She'll be joined by Nuratu Otulana, a holistic birth and postpartum doula who will share her experience in collaborating with the library.

00;04;56;07 - 00;05;24;14
Veronica Milliner
This webinar is going to share some best practices for community partnerships, and provide examples for how attendees can implement similar partnerships in their own communities. Brooklyn Public Library is also currently funded by an NAPC Partnership Award, where they are working with their local All of Us Research Program partner at Weill Cornell Medicine to enhance their programing and raise awareness about the importance of participation in biomedical research.

00;05;24;17 - 00;05;33;12
Veronica Milliner
And this is especially important for communities that have been historically underrepresented in biomedical research. So that's our first webinar.

00;05;33;15 - 00;06;05;20
April Wright
And on April 17th, 1 to 2 p.m. eastern time the webinar “Life After 2 Losses: Supporting Advocacy and Health literacy for a Healthy Pregnancy.” We'll highlight programing offered by the organization Life After Two Losses, which the organization aims to 1) change the narrative surrounding pregnancy loss 2) educate and raise awareness 3) promote advocacy efforts and 4) provide grief support.

00;06;05;22 - 00;06;34;23
April Wright
Now, the presenter, Vu An Foster, started Life After 2 Losses as a result of her own experiences. As you can tell from the name of her nonprofit, she did experience, some bias, you know, during two separate pregnancies that led to the death of two of her babies. You know, for example, they sent her home after her water broke and delayed giving lifesaving care to her baby because they wanted to wait for an HIV test.

00;06;34;25 - 00;06;44;14
April Wright
But on a positive note, Vu An, did have a healthy son with her third pregnancy. And here's a short clip of Vu An talking about why she started this nonprofit.

00;06;44;17 - 00;07;03;11
Vu An Foster
So Life After 2 Losses came about is because I'm still living my life, even though I've lost two my daughters and what I want to share with other women and other families is that life goes on. And how, how does life still go on. I'm trying to find ways to encourage and support other women in ways maybe I didn't have that,

00;07;03;13 - 00;07;14;18
Vu An Foster
and I want us to be able to speak out about our conditions, what's going on and not be silenced or shushed by anyone that feels uncomfortable about it, because that time is done.

00;07;14;21 - 00;07;26;06
Yamila El-Khayat
I really feel empowered hearing her speak. The time of being silent is done. These both sound like wonderful presentations. So tell me more about the objectives of this effort.

00;07;26;09 - 00;07;52;12
Veronica Milliner
Yeah. So the objectives are to strengthen awareness of health issues and disparities that disproportionately impact black women and their families. You know, we want people to walk away from this week's events with knowledge of programs and services that promote black maternal health awareness and to learn about relevant health information resources. We also want to create a space for people to discuss best practices for community health partnerships.

00;07;52;14 - 00;07;57;16
Veronica Milliner
This week, we're focusing on actionable steps to promote equity.

00;07;57;18 - 00;08;23;26
April Wright
Absolutely. And you know, we really want to emphasize the importance of self advocacy, in demanding proper care that pregnant people deserve when having a baby. I mean, even Serena Williams was not immune to this problem. A nurse, she was having a problem, a nurse did not listen to her. She had a blood clot that could have killed her, but she advocated for her own care.

00;08;23;27 - 00;08;40;01
April Wright
So, yeah, this is definitely, something that needs to be, we need to address this. And, you know, people who are not Serena Williams, need to be able to demand this care, and they need to be able to, expect it.

00;08;40;03 - 00;08;52;28
Yamila El-Khayat
Serena Williams, that's right. It's so important that we advocate for ourselves when it comes to health. So tell me how our listeners can join and participate in these discussions. Are they free to the public?

00;08;53;01 - 00;09;12;04
April Wright
Yes, they are absolutely free. You can go to nnlm.gov and look under training and Black Maternal Health Week. And you know, for both information and health professionals, these events also offer continuing education credits.

00;09;12;06 - 00;09;22;24
Yamila El-Khayat
This webinar series is a multi-region NNLM event hosted by an NNLM task force. So who is on this task force and how have you worked together?

00;09;22;26 - 00;09;51;24
Veronica Milliner
Yeah. So this task force is a collaborative effort across NNLM with participation from several different regions and offices. On the task force we have representation from regions one, two, and seven, as well as staff from NNLM’s All of Us Program Center. But, you know, it takes a village and we've gotten support from across NNLM, including our web services office, training office and evaluation, in addition to NNLM committees for communications materials.

00;09;51;27 - 00;10;15;14
Veronica Milliner
You know, so many moving parts to this week's events. It's been great to work collaboratively with others who share a passion for this topic. In addition to the webinars. We also created a toolkit that provides additional information on black maternal health and highlights other NNLM resources, like the NNLM Reading Club and Region five’s Birthing Persons Toolkit.

00;10;15;16 - 00;10;20;27
Yamila El-Khayat
Is a multi-region event or task force something unique with NNLM?

00;10;21;00 - 00;10;43;26
April Wright
Well, you know Yamila, this is a national issue, right? It's not a regional issue. So working together is critical to the success of not only raising awareness about the inequity in care, but also, you know, to support the NNLM network members across the country in addressing these issues in their communities. So finding ways to collaborate on public health concerns isn't new

00;10;43;28 - 00;11;00;16
April Wright
to NNLM. It's what we do. Throughout the year the NNLM regions and offices find ways to work together in order to address national health issues like inaccurate health information, environmental health, and substance use disorders.

00;11;00;19 - 00;11;17;26
Yamila El-Khayat
It takes a village, and it's definitely what we do. I love it. I had no idea that America was so far behind in maternal health, and there should be no difference in health care for any women or their babies. I want to thank you both, Veronica and April for sharing this story with us today.

00;11;17;28 - 00;11;19;13
Veronica Milliner
You're welcome.

00;11;19;15 - 00;11;21;10
April Wright
Thanks for having us.

00;11;21;13 - 00;11;27;20
Yamila El-Khayat
We've provided links in our show notes, where you can register for the two classes that NNLM is hosting this week.

00;11;27;22 - 00;11;39;10
April Wright
And also the webinars will be recorded. So if you register for them you will receive a recording after the event. So sign up even if you can't make it.

00;11;39;12 - 00;11;58;07
Yamila El-Khayat
I really want to encourage our listeners to register! It’s super exciting to see the multi-regional approaches being done within NNLM to address some of these health issues with high prominence. If you or someone you know has an idea for a health-related project that needs funding, please remember to reach out to your NNLM office.

00;11;58;09 - 00;12;14;13
Yamila El-Khayat
The NLM, NIH, and NNLM offer many funding opportunities. Contact your local regional rep or search for grants that are available now at: nnlm.gov/funding. This is NNLM Discovery. Thank you for listening.