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MADISON, Wis. — The Dane County Health Council (DCHC) and its partners proudly celebrate six years of the groundbreaking Saving Our Babies initiative, sharing the impacts of ConnectRx Wisconsin, an innovative care coordination program that has already shown positive outcomes addressing the county’s longstanding Black maternal and infant health crisis in its first two years.

In 2018, DCHC and community partners, including the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness (FFBWW) and EQT By Design, set out to eliminate the racial birth disparities impacting Black mothers and babies in Dane County. This county-wide effort emerged from DCHC’s 2017 decision, based on community health needs assessment data, to focus on Black maternal and child health. In committing to a single priority, DCHC paved the way for what today has become a partnership between health systems and community partners that is yielding positive gains and demonstrating the power of collective impact on solving a public health crisis.

“Saving Our Babies and ConnectRx are proof of what new approaches, the right partners and focused, sustained investment can produce,” said Robin Lankton, vice president of Population Health at UW Health, a member organization of DCHC since its inception in 2001. “The early and consistent wins we are witnessing demonstrate that we can disrupt Black maternal and child health disparities by creating solutions ‘with, rather than for,’ our community.”

Under the umbrella of the Saving Our Babies initiative, ConnectRx Wisconsin has emerged as a revolutionary solution to reducing health and social needs risks of Black pregnant women and birthing persons served through local hospitals and clinics. Through a wrap-around service delivery model designed by initiative partners with community input from more than 300 Black community members, ConnectRx Wisconsin deploys a dual workforce of clinic- and community-based health workers and trained doulas to support patients' health, social, economic, mental health and other resource needs. It utilizes a social determinants of health screening tool collaboratively developed by DCHC, FFBWW, EQT by Design and Epic, which is embedded in the electronic health record system to screen all local pregnant patients. Since April 2022, 674 Black pregnant patients who were screened as high-risk have been referred to ConnectRx Wisconsin for coordinated care, of which 600 were provided essential resources for housing, food, transportation and financial assistance. Among the 411 Black pregnant patients who opted to enroll in ConnectRx Wisconsin for additional birthing support, 234 healthy births have occurred so far, including 172 doula-supported births, showcasing the invaluable role of doulas in helping achieve positive birth outcomes.

During the 20-month evaluation period of ConnectRx Wisconsin, 90% of babies born with doula support reached optimal gestational age, and an impressive 84% were born at a healthy birth weight, addressing a critical factor in reducing Black infant mortality rates. Furthermore, in year one, 68% of clients avoided medical interventions, while an unprecedented 94% initiated breastfeeding, fostering healthy beginnings for mothers and babies alike.

The universal risk screener in ConnectRx Wisconsin, which began as a vital tool to assess the needs of high-risk Black pregnant patients, is now being leveraged by health system partners to support all birthing people in the county. Between April 2022 and December 2023, more than 7,500 pregnant patients were screened for health and social needs by DCHC health system partners. ConnectRx Wisconsin has demonstrated the ability to go beyond screening to proactively address the root causes of a suite of health challenges.                                                                            

“Saving Our Babies is not only transforming how care is delivered to Black mothers and all birthing people in Dane County. But we are fundamentally proving that the best and most effective solutions arise from community wisdom and know-how coupled with traditional systems,” said Lisa M. Peyton, CEO and president of the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness, an organization that has been a key strategic partner to DCHC from day 1. “What separates Saving Our Babies from other efforts is the deep investment in both community capacity and Black women’s leadership, not only at the top but in the representative workforce we’ve built that’s making the difference on the frontlines. This is where the power lies in the change we’re witnessing."

The impact of Saving Our Babies extends beyond individual births, encompassing broader community engagement and advocacy efforts. In partnership with the Foundation for Black Women's Wellness, the Black Maternal & Child Health Alliance (BMCHA) will host the Fourth Annual Black Maternal Child Health Summit on April 18. The event now attracts more than 500 registrants across Wisconsin and the United States, underscoring the national significance and impacts driven by initiative partners. The FFBWW and BMCHA continue to lead the way in engaging community stakeholders, advocates and experts on the urgency of Black maternal and child health, playing a vital role in informing and influencing local and statewide maternal and child health policies and practices.

As the Saving Our Babies initiative moves forward to create a new standard of excellence for Black maternal and child health, DCHC and its partners are turning their attention to long-term sustainability to ensure that the momentum gained over the last six years continues and is accelerated. Partners are calling on a wider range of public, private and community stakeholders to invest in the work, and are scaling up their efforts to pursue payment models and pathways like Medicaid and other health insurance reimbursement for community health worker and doula services.

“Sustainability and systems-change are our shared priorities now,” said Gabe Doyle, chief health initiatives officer at FFBWW, who has been a part of the initiative since its inception and plays a central role in the strategy and implementation of the model. “Now more than ever as our early sources of support are expiring, we need strong and stable funding commitments from all sectors to ensure that Saving Our Babies and ConnectRx are not another well-intended effort that loses steam. The lives of Black mothers and babies are at stake, and they deserve our investment.”

For more information on Saving Our Babies, contact DCHC Program Director, Ariel Robbins at 608-890-8412 or arobbins@uwhealth.org and visit www.savingourbabieswi.org.

‍The Dane County Health Council is a coalition of healthcare providers, government and nonprofits with a mission to eliminate gaps and barriers to optimal health and reduce disparities in health outcomes in Dane County. Council members include Access Community Health Centers, Black Maternal and Child Health Alliance, Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, Madison Metropolitan School District, Public Health Madison & Dane County, SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital, United Way of Dane County, UnityPoint Health – Meriter and UW Health.

MADISON, Wis. – The Dane County Health Council (DCHC) and the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness (FFBWW) are celebrating the one year anniversary of the ConnectRx Wisconsin program, a central component of the Saving Our Babies Initiative and its strategies to improve Black birth outcomes in Dane County.  

The Saving Our Babies Initiative coalesced in 2018 as a result of the Dane County Health Council and partners joining forces in response to a 2017 community health needs assessment confirming that maternal and child health is one of Dane County and Wisconsin’s most pressing and persistent health concerns. Recent reports indicate that Dane County continues to have one of the worst Black infant mortality rates in the United States, accompanied by significant racial disparities in household income and a growing life expectancy gap between Black and white women. As documented in the Saving Our Babies Report, at the root of these disparities is the stress caused by economic insecurity, racism and bias in the daily experiences of Black women and their families, and disconnected and difficult to navigate community services.

Launched in April 2022 by the DCHC, FFBWW and partners, ConnectRx Wisconsin is a care coordination system designed to address these challenges at their root. The aim of the program is to reduce low birth weights for babies born to Black mothers by meeting the clinical and non-clinical needs of expectant mothers and their families. ConnectRx Wisconsin specifically supports Black pregnant women and birthing persons through a wrap-around service delivery model that connects both clinical and trusted non-clinical community providers who work together to support patients' health, social, economic, mental health, and other resource needs. A clinic and community-based workforce of Community Health Workers (CHWs) and Doulas provides additional assistance to highest risk patients, ensuring they are supported throughout their pregnancy and postpartum.

All Black pregnant women and birthing persons served by local hospitals and clinics are screened for social determinants of health. If a patient screens positive in one of the following social determinants of health—financial resource strain, food insecurity, housing stability, stress, or transportation—and they consent, a referral is made to ConnectRx Wisconsin. In addition, through the electronic health record, a curated list of resources pulled from United Way of Dane County’s 211 is provided to the patient.

Since its launch, more than 400 Black women have been screened and referred to ConnectRx Wisconsin, connected to a vast network of community-based partner agencies and programs providing family-stabilizing resources and services. With an estimate of roughly 600 births by Black mothers or birthing persons each year in Dane County, these referral numbers clearly show the need and uptake. Early results also indicate that Black women patients participating in ConnectRx Wisconsin are experiencing fewer C-sections, more full term births, and higher infant birth weights as a result of doula assisted births and deeper partnerships between clinical providers, patients and the community workforce that make up the wrap-around service model.

“We are encouraged by the early indicators of improvement we are seeing in the birthing experiences among Black women participating in ConnectRx,” said Kyle Nondorf, President of SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison and one of the DCHC partner organizations.  “Though we have much more to learn from our formal evaluation efforts, we are seeing evidence that our efforts are translating into a new standard of care for Black women and birthing people.”

Nondorf and others contribute these early signs of success to the unprecedented collaboration that the Saving Our Babies Initiative has enabled across its many partners to align priorities, share leadership, and to co-design community-informed solutions. The initiative continues to grow community capacity to address Black birth disparities by building and bridging critical clinical and community infrastructure for a unique and integrated care coordination approach.

In the community, ConnectRx Wisconsin participants are supported by FFBWW, which manages the initiative's doula provider network and provides additional out-of-clinic CHW support. The Black Maternal Child Health Alliance (BMCHA) sits on the Health Council, informing the effort and providing broad leadership and advocacy locally and statewide. An additional network of trusted community based organizations and service providers are embedded in ConnectRx Wisconsin’s wrap-around support, accepting referrals to assist patients with housing, mental health, transportation, employment, and other critical family-stabilizing needs.

“What we’ve known all along and are demonstrating in these efforts is that viable, systemic solutions for Black women and communities must be co-built and co-led by Black women and communities,” said Lisa Peyton-Caire, CEO and President of the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness. “We’re showing that innovation and real change in disrupting stagnant health and birth disparities emerge when systems listen to, partner with, and invest in community capacity. It works.”  

Peyton-Caire and Annette Miller, president of EQT By Design, a co-partner on the project, say that ConnectRx Wisconsin is leveraging partner strengths and paving the way for Dane County to become a ‘center of excellence’ for Black Maternal and Child Health. Black women and families are being centered in the work. Health systems are embedding deeper training and education for its leadership and staff to improve care delivery to Black women and birthing persons. Community-based organizations are connecting patients to local resources in tandem with CHW’s and Doulas. The collaboration between health systems and community partners is bridging previously disconnected systems, forming a safety net for those most impacted by inequitable health outcomes in the Dane County community.

“To see our collective efforts materialize this way in concert with Black women and community is confirmation that partnership is the answer,” said Renee Moe, President and CEO of the United Way of Dane County which has been a member of the Dane County Health Council for more than 20 years. “We are demonstrating the power of collaboration and collective impact in helping solve one of our community’s greatest and most pervasive challenges.”

As their work continues, the DCHC and partners understand the urgency of sustaining efforts for the long haul. Post pandemic data show that COVID-19 was likely a key driver of the more than 60% increase in deaths from pregnancy from 2019 to 2021. Black women and birthing people continue to face the biggest threats and now experience the highest mortality rates in recent memory; 69.9 deaths per 100,000 live births.

“The pandemic has and likely will continue to disproportionately impact Black birthing people and their families,” said Dr. Tiffany Green, co-chair of the Black Maternal and Child Health Alliance of Dane County and associate professor of Population Health Sciences and Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Green, a health economist and nationally recognized expert on reproductive health equity, says continuing to center Black women, birthing people and babies is critical to mitigating the effects of COVID-19 on pregnancy- and birth-related outcomes. “This is not the time to drop our guard. Healthcare systems and providers must continue to protect the most vulnerable by holding themselves accountable to the communities they serve,” she said.  

Ariel Robbins, Project Director for the Dane County Health Council, says initiative partners are encouraged by the positive early impacts that the Saving Our Babies Initiative and ConnectRx Wisconsin are yielding, but that there is much more to do to strengthen the work and to ensure its sustainability for the long haul. “We’re committed to doing our part to eliminate racial birth disparities in our community, but it will take a collective effort from all sectors and corners of our community to make it happen. The problem wasn’t created in a day, and it will not be solved tomorrow. But with the support and investment of everyone and every sector – from business, philanthropy, to economic development, housing, and policy –  we have a fighting chance to save our babies.”

–– The Dane County Health Council is a coalition of healthcare providers, government and nonprofits with a mission to eliminate gaps and barriers to optimal health and reduce disparities in health outcomes in Dane County. Council members include Access Community Health Centers, Black Maternal and Child Health Alliance, Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, Madison Metropolitan School District, Public Health Madison & Dane County, SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital, United Way of Dane County, UnityPoint Health – Meriter and UW Health.

MADISON, Wis. – The Dane County Health Council (DCHC) and The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness (the Foundation) today announced a major step forward in local efforts to improve health outcomes for Black women, birthing persons and babies.

ConnectRx Wisconsin is a new care coordination system supporting Black pregnant women and birthing persons to gain greater access to healthcare and family-stabilizing resources that fill potentially unmet social needs such as food, financial assistance, housing, employment and transportation. It is designed to reduce the occurrence of low birthweight and improve birth outcomes for Black women, birthing persons and babies in Dane County.  

The system launch was led by DCHC, the Foundation, its project partner EQT By Design and several other key partners. ConnectRx is powered by tools developed by Verona, Wisconsin-based healthcare software giant, Epic Systems. It includes a screening process used by several Dane County health systems to identify both medical and non-medical needs of patients, a community-based workforce dedicated to connecting patients with local resources and a shared care coordination and referral technology.
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“ConnectRx is a critical milestone in the ongoing work we are doing to advance the health and well-being of Black women, birthing people, babies and families in Dane County,” said Lisa Peyton-Caire, CEO and president of The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness. “What’s most powerful about the system is its emergence from the collaboration of health systems, Black women and the community working together to eliminate racial birth disparities and save the lives of Black babies.”

The new system stems from more than four years of data gathering, partnership and community engagement. In 2017, the results from community health needs assessments confirmed maternal and child health to be one of the most persistent local health concerns. The DCHC used this data to generate new approaches to its longstanding work on eliminating disparities in low weight births between Black and white women in Dane County.

Notably, Wisconsin has one of the highest Black infant mortality rates in the United States, significant disparities in household income and was cited as the only state in the country where the life expectancy gap is widening between Black and white women.

In 2018, DCHC commissioned the Foundation and EQT By Design to conduct a community engagement effort that specifically centered Black women and community members to weigh in on the issue. Over a nine-month period, they engaged more than 300 Black community members and service providers across Dane County to identify root causes of these disparities as well as solutions to improve Black birth outcomes in the county.

These efforts culminated in the groundbreaking Saving Our Babies Report, which pointed to stress caused by economic insecurity, racism and bias in the daily experiences of Black women and families, as well as disconnected and difficult-to-navigate community health services. The report, which includes community-based and system-level recommendations, led to the launch of the formal Saving Our Babies Initiative in 2019, the Black Maternal and Child Health Alliance of Dane County (the Alliance) in 2020 and paved the way for ConnectRx.
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“This work requires a deep dedication to partnership and listening to the voices of the experts and the community members, then acting on what we hear with tangible, systemic change,” said Dr. Tiffany Green, assistant professor of population health sciences and obstetrics and gynecology at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and co-chair of the Alliance.

ConnectRx begins with a universal screening for social determinants of health in healthcare appointment settings. A culturally inclusive workforce that includes doulas, community health workers and community health promoters, will work directly with patients to meet their needs. UW Health is serving as the ConnectRx host site, which includes employing the community health workers and providing Epic care coordination tools to all health system and community-based partners.

Black pregnant women and birthing patients with identified support needs are referred by their care team to community health workers who will connect them with trusted community agencies to gain access to resources like housing and employment assistance and mental health services. Patients with the highest levels of health risk will also be offered the support of doulas, coordinated by the Foundation, for additional support throughout their pregnancy journey in an effort to reduce complications and support postpartum health.

ConnectRx uniquely integrates healthcare and social service systems within a care coordination technology solution. A secure referral system connects a patient’s secure electronic health records to United Way of Dane County’s 211 community resources, facilitating actionable referrals and follow-up mechanisms to help Dane County families increase their income and improve health outcomes.

All DCHC health system partners – Access Community Health Centers, Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, SSM Health, UnityPoint Health – Meriter and UW Health – are invested in ConnectRx, have implemented the tool and will facilitate referrals and follow-ups with their patients.
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“We as health systems have a responsibility to address racial inequity with systemic change,” said Dr. Ken Loving, CEO, Access Community Health Centers. “With the potential to reach 200,000 households, 95% of patients and 99.6% of births in the county, ConnectRx can do just that, ultimately reducing racial disparities and improving health outcomes.”

Through the collective efforts of the DCHC and the Foundation, ConnectRx has secured $6 million dollars to date to support the effort including $1 million from Schmidt Futures, $1 million from the Wisconsin Partnership Program, $1 million from the Wisconsin Department of Administration in America Rescue Plan Act funding and an additional $3 million in congressionally directed spending support.
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“ConnectRx will transform how we identify and enact sustainable solutions to improve birth outcomes,” said Ariel Robbins, program director, DCHC. “The Dane County Health Council is proud to facilitate the work that has stemmed from the voices of our community members to change the health trajectory of their lives and the lives of their children.”

The Dane County Health Council is a coalition of healthcare providers, government and nonprofits with a mission to eliminate gaps and barriers to optimal health and reduce disparities in health outcomes in Dane County. Council members include Access Community Health Centers, Black Maternal and Child Health Alliance, Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, Madison Metropolitan School District, Public Health Madison & Dane County, SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital, United Way of Dane County, UnityPoint Health – Meriter and UW Health.

Madison –The Dane County Health Council, the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness, and EQT by Design will host a news conference Thursday, February 20 at 8:00 a.m. at the new offices of the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness, 6601 Grand Teton Plaza, Suite A2, Madison to update the community on progress on “Saving our Babies: Low Birthweight Engagement” initiative.

The press conference will share updates on key actions and investments to be made by the Dane County Health Council including:

• the hiring of a project manager for the Care Coordination project (funded through a recently secured $1million Wisconsin Partnership Program grant)
  
• the formation of the Black Maternal and Child Health Alliance
• investments for the training and expansion of African American doulas
  

“We are excited about the progress of this collective effort as we work towards a Dane County where Black infants are born healthy. The investments we share today are powerful steps in the right direction, and will continue to center around the voices and needs of Black women and their families” said Lisa-Peyton Caire, founding CEO and President of the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness.

The mission of the Black Maternal and Child Health Alliance (BMCHA) is to work to transform birth outcomes in Dane County by identifying, informing and advancing strategies and approaches that improve reproductive, maternal and newborn health of Dane County’s African American population.

A roundtable discussion with the BMCHA and the Dane County Health Council is scheduled for April where key stakeholders will identify priorities and goals. The first annual Wisconsin Black Maternal & Child Health Summit is scheduled for 2021.  There has been commitment to invest in expanding African-American doulas in Dane County as a strategy to support Black women and improve birth outcomes. Doulas are trained, non-medical assistants in childbirth who provide emotional and physical support and assistance to mothers, families, and babies before, during and after pregnancy.

“The Dane County Health Council is proud to support this collective community engagement effort to identify sustainable solutions to improve birth outcomes for babies born to African-American mothers in Dane County. We feel these next steps are moving us closer to eliminating gaps and reducing health disparities in Dane County,” said Dr. Mark Huth, CEO of Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin.

Babies born to African-American mothers in Dane County are two times more likely than white infants to be born with low birth weights, a fact which puts them at risk of significant health challenges and higher infant-mortality rates.

Dane County Health Council is a coalition of health care providers, government and non-profits with a mission to eliminate gaps and barriers to optimal health and reduce disparities in health outcomes in Dane County.

Council members include: Access Community Health Centers, Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, Madison Metropolitan School District, Public Health Madison & Dane County, SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital, United Way of Dane County, UnityPoint Health-Meriter, and UW Health.

In 2018, The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness and EQT by Design led a nine-month long collective community engagement effort in partnership with the Health Council to identify sustainable solutions to low birthweight babies born to African-American mothers in Dane County. They announced their findings in this April 2019 report: https://ffbww.org/savingourbabies/

Madison –The Dane County Health Council, the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness, and EQT by Design will host a news conference Thursday, February 20 at 8:00 a.m. at the Madison –The Dane County Health Council and the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness will host a news conference Friday, July 12 at 8:30 a.m. at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 5701 Raymond Road in Madison to outline next steps after releasing their report: “Saving our Babies: Low Birthweight Engagement” back in April.
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A key finding of the engagement is that black women and men in Dane County identify persistent, unchanging racial and economic inequity as key drivers of the disparity in infant birthweights and birth outcomes in the county.

“Now we turn to the work of changing the outcomes in our community. Together we will build a Dane County where Black infants are born healthy and do not experience disparities with low birthweight,” said Lisa Peyton-Caire, founder and president of the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness.

Discussion items will include:

• Community investments such as expanding the pool and presence of African-American doulas and community health workers;
  
• Development of a Black Maternal Health Alliance; and
• Neighborhood-based action teams and education.
  

Babies born to African-American mothers in Dane County are two times more likely than white infants to be born with low birth weights, a fact which puts them at risk of significant health challenges and higher infant-mortality rates.

The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness and EQT by Design led a nine-month long collective community engagement effort in partnership with the Health Council to identify sustainable solutions to low birthweight babies born to African-American mothers in Dane County.

Dane County Health Council is a coalition of health care providers, government and non-profits with a mission to eliminate gaps and barriers to optimal health and reduce disparities in health outcomes in Dane County.

Council members include: Access Community Health Centers, Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, Madison Metropolitan School District, Public Health Madison & Dane County, SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital, United Way of Dane County, UnityPoint Health-Meriter, and UW Health.

Madison – Black women and men in Dane County identify persistent, unchanging racial and economic inequity as key drivers of the disparity in infant birth weights and birth outcomes in the county.

That is one key finding of a new report: “Saving our Babies: Low Birthweight Engagement Final Report.” The Dane County Health Council and the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness released the report on African-American infant health in Dane County today in honor of Black Maternal Health Week.

After a nine-month public engagement effort commissioned by the Health Council and led by the Foundation and its project partner EQT By Design, LLC, the report found that African-Americans in Dane County identify the following as root causes of low-birthweight Black infants: stressed Black family systems; generational struggles for economic security and stability; and institutional racism and bias and their impact on Black life and progress. Babies born to African-American mothers in Dane County are two times more likely than White infants to be born with low birth weights, a factor which puts the infants at risk of significant health challenges and higher mortality rates. Recent Public Health Madison & Dane County data show Black infant mortality rates as high as 12.0 infant deaths per 1,000 live births during 2016-2018. Wisconsin ranks worst in the nation for Black infant mortality.

The report was not designed as a rigorous research study, but instead focused on a series of community conversations, surveys, and facilitated discussions with nearly 300 participants including over 200 Black women, as well as Black men, health-care professionals, and social services providers who serve Black women and families.

“What we heard definitively from Black women and men is that the poor birth outcomes experienced by many Black families are, in their eyes, driven by larger social and economic forces that exert pressure and persistent stress on their lives as individuals and family units,” said Lisa Peyton-Caire, Founder and President of the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness. “The last nine months of work has been unprecedented in that we were able to engage so many voices. Our charge now is to work in partnership to implement solutions that will secure the long-term health of Black babies in Dane County. This must include intentional steps to improve the well-being of Black families.”

The report identifies 10 consistent themes that emerged from the engagement effort that drew from African American residents from across Dane County:

• Racism, discrimination, and institutional bias
• Bias and cultural disconnect in health-care delivery experiences
• Economic insecurity
• Housing insecurity and high cost of living
• Poor access to health-supporting assets
• Inadequate social supports
• Gaps in health literacy, education, and support
• Disconnected and hard-to-navigate community resources
• Systemic barriers to individual and family advancement
• Chronic stress

“These findings align with hundreds of studies that detail how toxic stress and racism throughout the lives of individuals of color impact their well-being. We must focus on the wide-ranging factors that are driving these inequitable birth outcomes. We know these outcomes are not inevitable and can be undone. Working in partnership, we can interrupt this cycle,” said Janel Heinrich, director of Public Health Madison & Dane County.

“This report’s goal was to gather insight, perspective, and feedback from those most significantly and directly affected by this issue: — Dane County’s African-American community,” said Dr. Ken Loving, Access Community Health Centers CEO. “This summary is a powerful first step as we move forward in collaboration toward saving our babies.”

The report also proposed several community-informed next steps and solutions that include:

• Internal health-system actions such as expanding promising initiatives like the Centering Pregnancy (group prenatal care) program.
• Community investments such as expanding the pool and presence of African-American doulas and improving teen sexual and reproductive-health education.
• System and policy action such as expanding affordable housing, child care, and tying health care to economic and regional advancement.

A press conference outlining specific next steps is expected in July.  The full report can be found at here: FFBWW-DCHC Low Birthweight Report_April2019

‍The Dane County Health Council members include: Access Community Health Centers, Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, Madison Metropolitan School District, Public Health Madison & Dane County, SSM Health, United Way of Dane County, UnityPoint Health-Meriter, and UW Health.

Black Maternal Health week is April 11-17.

The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness is proud to partner with the Dane County Health Council as we collectively work to address and uncover solutions for lowering the incidence of low birth weight babies born to Black mothers in Dane County.

Your participation and feedback will enable us to learn more about issues and that may impact the health of mothers and babies as we seek long term solutions.

Right now we know that babies born to Black mothers in Dane County are 2 times more likely to be born at low birth weight, which puts them at increased risk of significant health challenges, and of dying within the first year of life. This is one of the significant health challenges we face in Dane County, and in the State of Wisconsin where we presently lead the nation in Black infant mortality, and the gap between the birth outcomes of Black and white babies.

Over the next several months we will engage Black women, mothers, men, and fathers as the primary experts to inform our understanding of the root causes, drivers and solutions for lowering the incidence of low birth weight.

We are seeking participants who are:

• African American women and men
  
• Dane County residents, ages 18 and older (teen parents under 18 must have parental content to participate)
• Have given birth to a low birth weight baby, or know a Black woman/family who has
  
• Have lost a child between 0-1 year old or, know a Black woman/family who has
  

Participants will receive lunch ($25 gift card) after full participation in a session. To inquire about upcoming sessions and eligibility to participate, contact us at:info@ffbww.org or call (608) 709-8840

Funded by The Dane County Health Council: