Grant Program: Maternal and Child Health

Rock County Public Health Department (RCPHD) is partnering with Rock & Walworth County Comprehensive Family Services, Inc. Early HeadStart, Harambee Village Doulas, and Dean Health Plan/SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital of Janesville to strengthen community support for pregnant Black women and Black families. With this initiative, RCPHD will conduct a comprehensive needs assessment, expand doula services through building an apprenticeship pipeline and execute an educational campaign to increase awareness about the impact of racism and its chronic stress on Black mothers and the value of doula support.

Today Not Tomorrow, Inc. will use its grant to support the training of a diverse workforce of community health workers, midwives and community-based doulas across the state. This project aims to sustain current infant and maternal health programming to continue providing access to low or no cost doula services, provide breastfeeding support and family support services for BIPOC birthing people and their families and implement the Harambee Birth and Family Center services to provide autonomy to Black families through a range of care and birth options.

This project, WeRISE Community Doula Program, aimed to transform the African American Breastfeeding Network’s pilot program into a sustainable community-based model of care for Black families. In Milwaukee, Black infant mortality rates are three times higher than white infant mortality rates, and maternal mortality rates are five times higher for Black women than white women in Wisconsin. The project made significant progress toward its goal by increasing program awareness at both the community and state levels and by forming partnerships with various organizations. The WeRISE doula program supported 65 pregnant individuals providing support and care through the prenatal, delivery and postpartum periods. Survey feedback demonstrated high levels of satisfaction and the program’s positive impact in reducing anxiety related to pregnancy and labor.

The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness will partner 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 will collaborate to aid Black women in Dane county overcoming economic stressors; improving access to information, education and supports; and accessing critical social, healthcare and community supports to address needs that impact perinatal health.

The City of Milwaukee Health Department has received a grant for the Birth Outcomes Made Better Doula program that will transform this pilot program into a longstanding, free, accessible, in-home, data driven and culturally responsive service to decrease the gaps in Black women’s healthcare in Milwaukee. This project will focus on making doulas more accessible to the public, providing consistent and client-centered health education and guidance, increasing breastfeeding initiation and duration, connecting birthing people to routine prenatal and post-partum cares, supporting pathways to socioeconomic stability, increasing engagement with healthy behaviors and providing employment opportunities for doulas in Milwaukee.

The Great Rivers United Way’s project Improving Maternal and Child Health Outcomes through Great Rivers HUB and Community Health Worker/Doula Workforce Expansion (La Crosse County) will expand a community health worker/doula program to reduce the low birthweight and other poor health outcomes by addressing social determinants of health and supporting prenatal care.

The Center for Special Children, Vernon Memorial Healthcare La Farge Clinic is leading the project, Support for Mothers and Infants from the Amish and Mennonite (Plain) Communities); the goal of this project is to build capacity to address the growing need to support genetic testing and newborn screening among the Plain communities.

Wood County Health Department’s project Improving Health Outcomes for Families: Evidence-based Home Visiting will implement Parents as Teachers (PAT), a comprehensive, evidence-based home visiting model to increase parent knowledge, provide early detection of developmental delays and health issues, prevent child abuse and neglect, and increase school readiness and success.

This project will use family resource and support specialists to promote infant health and safety, and address parental mental and physical health, family needs and risk factors that contribute to abuse and neglect in Door County.