The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness partnered with Reach Dane to provide comprehensive, culturally appropriate, coordinated support to Black women in Reach Dane’s Early Childhood Program who are at risk of experiencing poor maternal and infant health outcomes. They collaborated to aid Black women in Dane County with overcoming economic stressors, improving access to information, education and supports, and accessing critical social, healthcare and community support to address needs that impact perinatal health.
The Challenge
In Dane County, Black mothers and infants continue to face some of the highest disparities in maternal and child health outcomes in Wisconsin. In 2018, the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness conducted a community engagement campaign with over 300 Black women, mothers, fathers and young adults to understand the root causes of the county’s African American low birthweight crisis. The findings, summarized in the Saving Our Babies Report (2019), revealed that racism, discrimination and institutional bias are among the primary drivers of maternal and infant health disparities.
Despite the services provided through Reach Dane’s Early Head Start program – including weekly home visits and prenatal care – many mothers still face barriers that put their health and the health of their babies at risk. For example, while 97 percent of pregnant Black women enrolled had consistent access to prenatal care, 61 percent screened for high depression. Additionally, Black women enrolled in Early Head Start are disproportionately affected by chronic disease, with nearly half reporting ongoing health issues and 42 percent experiencing high-risk pregnancies.
Project Goals
The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness and Reach Dane partnered to support pregnant and postpartum Black mothers enrolled in Early Head Start. The project goals were:
Expanding access to Black doulas
Expanding access to Black lactation consultants
Expanding access to health promotion and education
Expanding access to emergency assistance and crisis counseling
Expanding access to communities of support
Results
The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness and Reach Dane continued to expand and strengthen the Reach for Wellness program, ensuring that Black mothers and families in Dane County had access to perinatal support. Over the course of the project, 55 mothers were referred into the program, representing the highest number of referrals since its launch. In total, 61 births were supported during the grant period, alongside 26 postpartum-only cases and six grief support interventions for pregnancy and infant loss. The impact of these services is reflected in the outcomes with 95 percent of births resulted in healthy gestational age and birthweight – outcomes that exceeded local, state and national averages. Breastfeeding initiation and continuation were also strengthened, with 65 mothers receiving lactation support and breastfeeding rates rose significantly above the national average for Black women.
Program expansion also advanced across all core activities. Four new doulas were trained to meet the increasing demand for culturally congruent birth support, and partnerships with lactation consultants, community midwives and organizations such as the African American Breastfeeding Alliance continued to deepen. Health promotion and education remained central, with events such as Black Women’s Wellness Day, Wear Red Day and the Maternal and Child Health Summit reaching hundreds of women.
Crisis assistance and emergency support were another critical component of the program’s success. Thirty-two mothers were connected to no-cost, culturally relevant mental health services, while financial and housing support expanded reflecting a 195 percent rise in rental assistance and a 70 percent increase in homelessness prevention interventions. Community Health Workers played an important role, walking alongside mothers to navigate social determinants of health and ensuring they had stable foundations to thrive.
Lasting Impact
The Reach for Wellness program has created a lasting framework for improving Black maternal and infant health in Dane County. The program has proven that when Black women are supported with resources that reflect their lived experiences and cultural strengths, birth outcomes improve, and long-term health is strengthened. By exceeding benchmarks for healthy birthweight, gestational age and breastfeeding, Reach for Wellness has demonstrated what is possible when equity is centered in maternal health.
