The Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta wants to save Black mothers and lives.
Per NPR, the historically Black institution recently held a graduation ceremony for 12 Black women who are officially perinatal patient navigators — people who work with expecting mothers during their pregnancy and childbirth, also known as doulas. The women come from the southwest region of Georgia, which has limited access to maternity care. In fact, NPR reports that there is only one hospital in the Albany, Georgia, region.
The women performed 20 weeks of specialized, intensive training. Graduate Joan Anderson, 55, told NPR that she’s looking forward to bringing change in her community.
“I feel like I’m equipped to go out and be that voice, be that person that our community needs so bad,” she says.
According to the news site Governing, Georgia is one of the least safest states for women to give birth in — with between 35 and 40 mothers dying each year. More than 2 million women of childbearing age live in areas without access to birthing facilities or maternity care providers across the country, the March of Dimes finds.
And the most at risk are Black mothers. The Morehouse School of Medicine states that Black Georgian women are more than twice as likely to suffer a pregnancy-related death.
But Natalie Hernandez-Green, executive director of the Morehouse School of Medicine Center for Maternal Health Equity, is trying to change that.
“We’re developing a workforce that’s going to be out there, providing the support that Black women and birthing people need,” Hernandez-Green told NPR.
While doulas aren’t medical professionals, they are important in helping guide expectant mothers through the healthcare system and providing emotional and physical support before and after birth. Morehouse’s doulas also help mothers to find food assistance and transportation.
While states like New York and Indiana have worked to reimburse pregnant mothers through Medicare, having a doula can be expensive and is not often covered by insurance. This leaves many low-income women unable to seek care, according to the Women’s Bureau. Costs for a doula range between $500 to $2,500 per birth, the doula collective Wildwood Birth finds, and prices can vary per region.
Doula advocates are pushing for Georgia’s Medicaid program to cover doula care, which they say can save the state money, reduce maternal mortality and help remedy racial disparities. Meanwhile, Morehouse’s doulas program relies on grants to pay for the salaries of five doulas during their first year of work.
With this program, Hernandez-Green says she hopes to change Georgia’s maternal mortality rates “one person at a time.”
