Working Groups
Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Georgia convenes a number of working groups to address priority maternal and infant health topics. While these topics are important to the health and well-being of Georgia’s moms and babies, there were no other groups working on these issues. Please email Amber Mack at amber.mack@hmhbga.org for more information about joining a working group.
Oral Health & Pregnancy
Oral healthcare during pregnancy is important to the health and development of the baby. The Oral Health & Pregnancy Working Group meets on a quarterly basis with the goal of increasing access to adequate oral healthcare for pregnant women covered by Medicaid in Georgia. The group focuses on the following three areas
- Perinatal Provider Education: Increase the number of perinatal providers who serve women with Medicaid who will assess oral health care behaviors & provide oral health education during pregnancy by 2021.
- Patient Education: By the end of 2021, 50% of pregnant women covered by Medicaid will receive oral health education/awareness during pregnancy.
- Administrative Barriers: Increase the number of oral health providers who serve pregnant women with Medicaid by 2022.
Doula Access
The Doula Access Working Group meets quarterly to ensure all women in Georgia will have affordable access to culturally appropriate doula care. This group works on the following three strategies
- Reimbursement Pathways: Implement a feasible insurance reimbursement plan (Medicaid and/or private insurance) for doula services offered in Georgia
- Hospital Buy-In: Integrate a full spectrum doula care model into at least one Georgia hospital system
- Research: Conduct and complete additional Georgia-based research on cost savings for hospitals based on the integration of full spectrum doula care (including postpartum doulas), benefits of doula care, and family demand for doulas in hospital settings
Prenatal Education
The Prenatal Education working Group meets on an ad-hoc basis to increase quality prenatal education content and access throughout the state of Georgia. They also serve as an advisory committee to HMHBGA’s own initiatives including
- Pickles & Ice Cream Georgia
- Curriculum Improvement
- Prenatal Education Toolkits
Business Brain Trust
The Business Brain Trust Working Group consists of members of the Georgia business community who meet to discuss issues related to marketing, technology integration and revenue generation on behalf of HMHBGA. They meet on an ad-hoc basis.
Infant Mortality
The Infant Mortality Working Group will convene in summer 2020. This group will review data and develop evidence-based strategies for reducing Georgia’s infant mortality rate.
P4HB
The Planning for Healthy Babies (P4HB) Working Group will convene in December 2019. The goal of this group is to increase the number of women enrolling in and utilizing the Planning for Healthy Babies Waiver.
