BLACK BIRTHING INITIATIVE

Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Georgia (HMHBGA) and the Center for Black Women’s Wellness (CBWW) have partnered to expand their current offerings to support Black birthing people, their supportive partners, and babies in Georgia. The aim is to build an accessible, culturally relevant, and responsive intervention model that addresses prematurity, infant mortality, and maternal mortality in Georgia, which disproportionately affects Black birthing people.  This program is part of a research initiative to see how comprehensive support during pregnancy can improve outcomes for birthing people and their babies.

Our proposed intervention seeks to provide comprehensive support to the Black birthing population residing in select counties in the Metro Atlanta Region, throughout pregnancy and the first six months postpartum. 

The intervention will leverage patients and families, providers, families, systems of care, and our community to provide support and engagement specific to the Black birthing population. Each family can expect to receive the following: 

  • Prenatal education: Prenatal education will be provided through home visitation services by doulas/childbirth educators and HMHBGA’s Pickles & Ice Cream Platform.  

  • Assessment, case management, and referral: Each pilot participant will be paired with a doula/childbirth educator who will meet with them monthly to support the family in addressing social determinants of health 

  • Birth planning and advocacy training: Each participant will receive birth planning conducted by their doula/childbirth educator, along with HMHBGA’s current patient advocacy training.  

  • Social and support activities: Participants will engage in quarterly group-based family support activities co-designed by pilot participants and doulas/childbirth educators.  

This program is part of a research initiative to see how comprehensive support during pregnancy can improve outcomes for birthing people and their babies. 

Applications for the Black Birthing Initiative are now closed. For more information, please contact our team at familysupport@hmhbga.org.