There is something very special about this time of the year. When every
April tens of thousands of families, hit the streets
to raise money. By taking part in the March of Dimes. March for babies,
the Houston March has
long been one of the largest and one of the most fun in the nation.
And this year, that’s going to take place Sunday,
April, 23rd at the University of Houston. There are many reasons
why you should plan
to try to take part in some way.
Anyway,
joining me to talk about this year’s event and the impact of March of Dimes
can
Continue to make with your support. At least you leave the director
of collective impact. Good morning to you. Thank you for being here. Good
morning. Thank you so much for having me today, khambrel. Yeah, it’s my
pleasure. It’s are you like me when you see those folk
on March for babies day? It just something unique, isn’t
it? Absolutely. So, in Houston, we are proud
to be the number one, walk the number one March for babies
in our country. We expect around, you know, five
to six thousand people to come, bring the family,
we have something for everyone.
We’ll have music, we’ll have games, we have giant. Jenga
will have some Inflatables
will have food trucks.
You know, we start with a walk and then join us for the festival
in March for babies town. And this is a
signature. It’s one of those special years to isn’t it. This is
absolutely. This is March of Dimes. We are celebrating our 85th
Anniversary this year.
We started with
President Franklin D. Roosevelt put out the call to all Americans.
I call it the first crowdfunding.
Campaign. He asked everyone to send a dime to the
White House.
And with the funds raised, we were able to Pioneer
research for
polio vaccine
and the eradication of polio. And now we’re dealing with prematurity.
And now
maternal Health trying to find ways to stop
premature births, which are continue to be a problem.
Talk about one of the specific initiatives going on in the Houston area.
That’s devoted toward that. Sure. Yeah. So unfortunately, Houston
March of Dimes has a report card every year.
R. We give we give everyone a grade of how you’re doing
and here, in Houston Harris County.
Unfortunately, we have an F
are preterm birth rates about 12%. Which means,
one in eight babies is born preterm
and we know that the health of mom, the health of baby, it’s intertwined.
And one of the the leading causes of maternal
death unfortunately
has to deal with cardiovascular conditions with your heart health.
And
so one of the initiatives we have had is to
how do we encourage?
Encourage women pregnant individuals to know their
blood pressure
to know your numbers
and you would think that having a home monitoring kit having a home
blood
pressure cuff, would be something that is
easy to access and easy to know
what your heart health is. And then, if you are having some
some high blood pressure numbers to call your physician.
However, that’s just not accessible to many to
many houstonians.
Yeah, I’m sure that a lot of the
What you’re doing.
Lets you know that that’s one of the problems that accessibility is one of the
problems.
Also, looking at disorders
substance use, I saw that on the website substance use
disorder and I thought.
Hmm.
What does that? And you say that’s just another way of saying substance abuse.
Yes
it is. So again another leading cause of
maternal death is
behavioral health mental health conditions
as well as and substance use disorder. So women who are using
illegal substances and
so we have started a
provider education, awareness
called Beyond labels,
a Statewide initiative. We have been able the past year to train
over 900 Health Care, Professionals
Physicians social workers nurses community health
workers on
what the stigma is associated with pregnancy
and mental health, maternal, mental health substance use disorder.
And
what are those resources? What are the educational components that
you can know as a provider
to then be able to work with your
Or your patient. So when you get that grade that comes out
and and Houston gets an F, what
it’s not within your control necessarily other than to make people aware
of the problem. You don’t actually,
we raise money. The more should I say we because I’ve been involved with this
for a long time,
we raise money but that money goes to help
what? To have? Try to change those grades. Yeah, absolutely. So we work
with
organizations, the beauty that I get to do is I get to work
with community-based organizations. So what we call a collective impact model
Do
we all come around a, cause a complex problem
prematurity.
Maternal death
and how are we working together?
And so right now,
we have actually
just started
recruiting our first cohort to develop a community-based
doula training initiative working with for organizations
who are
doing the work.
And how do we collaborate individually to train women to become
a doula?
She is a non-medical professional, right?
She provides supports education,
Vika
see for the birthing person
for their partner.
During that prenatal delivery, the postpartum time on
how they can be an advocate for themselves and provides
continuous support to her. So, I noticed that a lot of times, we
talk about the maternal
death rate that
African-American women. Women of color are the ones who are the highest
risk on that
is, the Doula program. Something that is
specifically focused on trying to help women of color. Get through
this process a little bit better.
Absolutely. So we
recruiting
individuals women of color to become doulas in our first cohort
and our first training program.
And we will, we want them to serve our community,
to serve our women of color, particularly our black women because
of the inequities that are existing in those outcomes that we’re seeing
for moms and babies.
Well, I’ve seen it work.
My daughter used to Doula for both of her children and it was exceptional.
When there were challenges along the way, the duel was right there and
was
really helpful throughout this process. So
first step is to get out and be a part of the
March for babies, what’s the best way to definitely join us? You can go to
March for babies dot-org.
We invite you to join us as we honor connects
unite and care for all of our families. Well, I
am looking forward to it. I hope the weather is good that day. I don’t know, who knows what
the weather’s going to be like, but we’re going to look and see what that’s got to be
like,
thank you Alicia, for all you do, good luck, March a babies and I know
we have different walks in different places so
the Mantra babies
you may do Montgomery or
Sugarland the different places but
come on out.
Do it? I look forward to seeing you on the 23rd.
Absolutely. We’re going to pray for good weather. Yes.
Okay.