EASTHAM – Cape Cod Children’s Place and Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital were recently among eleven statewide organizations to receive a share of $1.5 million in grant funding to tackle inequities in maternal health care from the Office of Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell.
Funds from the Maternal Health Equity Grant will be used to provide culturally informed maternal health care by expanding access to prenatal care, perinatal behavioral health support, and breastfeeding support for underrepresented groups while also increasing access to the doula workforce.
The announcement comes following a report by the Department of Public Health that the rate of severe maternal morbidity in Massachusetts nearly doubled from 2011 to 2020, with Black, non-Hispanic mothers experiencing a disproportionate number of severe complications.
“We each have a role to play in addressing the maternal health crisis in Massachusetts where, for example, Black birthing people experience the highest rates of labor and delivery complications compared to other races and ethnicities,” said Campbell. “I’m proud that my office is leveraging its grant-making tool to do exactly that.”
“Our maternal Health Equity Grants will provide much-needed funds to non-profit organizations across the state that have demonstrated their ability to tackle this ongoing crisis,” she said.
“Together, we are making clear that the safety and wellbeing of all those who give birth and parent matters and contributes to the health and success of all of us.”
Cape Cod Children’s Place will use its allocation of funds to provide training toward certificates in perinatal mood disorders such as postpartum depression for Spanish and Portuguese clinicians to address a deficit in perinatal mental health professionals on the Cape and Islands.
The increase in certified clinicians will be used to create three new support groups for new parents, including multilingual and LGTQIA+ families.
Signature Healthcare Brockton will use its funds to hire new multi-lingual staff for its Healthy Beginnings program, which connects the families of expecting mothers in Brockton’s diverse community with obstetricians and midwives.
The program had experienced disruptions in recent years due to the COVID pandemic and an electrical fire within the Brockton Hospital.
To read the Department of Public Health’s findings on severe maternal morbidity, click here.
By, Matthew Tomlinson, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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