Eliminating Maternal Health Inequities
Meet the 2022 Heart of Healthcare Grand Prize Winner.
In this episode, Dr. Laurie Zephyrin, Heart of Healthcare Grant Challenge judge and SVP for Advancing Health Equity at the Commonwealth Fund, interviews Dr. Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha from Tuft’s Center for Black Maternal Health & Reproductive Justice, the winner of our $25,000 grant challenge. Learn about how CBMHRJ is taking a new approach to eliminating maternal health inequities and improving the Black birthing experience.
That's what brought me here and that's what keeps me in the maternal health space. I carry the spirits of these two friends of mine who are no longer here physically to be able to do this work and to raise their children and frankly, who should be here because of the sheer nature of the preventability of their deaths.
Follow Dr. Laurie Zephyrin on Twitter
Follow Dr. Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha on Twitter
Topics covered:
Her journey to working in public health and specifically maternal health
How the overturning of Roe vs. Wade impacts her work
How 80% of maternal deaths are preventable
The benefits / ROI of doulas
What’s next in women's health
Listen
Transcript
Laurie: hello listeners. So great to be hosting this podcast today. My name is Laurie Zephyrin and I'm today's host of the Heart of Healthcare podcast. I am the senior vice President for advancing health equity. At the Commonwealth Fund where I lead our work on health equity and health systems change, I am also an ob gyn by training and have a passion for transforming health systems, driving policy change and health equity, especially as it relates to black maternal health.
I was also one of the judges of the 2022 Heart of Healthcare Grant Challenge, and today I am so honored and thrilled to be talking to our grand prize winner, Dr. Amutah Onukagha. She is the founder and director of Tuft Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice. She's a professor at Tufts, an innovator and founder of Mother.
A best selling author and researcher. I can go on. The mission of the center, uh, for, uh, black maternal health and reproductive justice is really to foster academic and community engaged partnership and research. And Dr. Amutah Onukagha will tell us more about this center. I will turn it over to her.
Indeed. Amutah. So great to have you on this podcast. How are you?
Dr. Amutah: Thank you. Oh, I'm great. Dr. Zephyrin, thank you so much for this opportunity. Thank you to Halle Tecco and the Heart of Healthcare podcast. Thank you to all the amazing reviewers, and shout out to the 645 people that cast a vote for us to be able to win this amazing grant. We are so thankful.
Laurie: Yes, yes. Thank you. And please call me Laurie . Okay.
Dr. Amutah: Okay,
Laurie: Thanks. So I so admire your work. Uh, I've been following it for a long time. We all have our stories of what led us to this work and would love to hear your story. What, what led you to this work and what's your vision for this center?
Dr. Amutah: Well, thank you so much for that question. What led me to this work was a number of things. I think sometimes in life we fall into our passion, and even when we think we're going on a, on a slightly different path, we end up exactly where we're supposed to be at the exact time we're supposed to be there.
So I am the proud daughter of Nigerian immigrants. I grew up in Trenton, New Jersey. Um, what brought me to this work was losing a dear friend of mine at the age of 16 to really preventable complications after she delivered her first child. Um, and I know now that what we call the social determinants of health and, you know, the, the hospital that she was delivering and the quality of the facilities.
Really have an impact. I know now the framing around obs such racism and systemic racism and how these things exacerbate underlying maternal health inequities in communities of color. But I didn't know that as a 16 year old teenager. All I know is that I lost my friend who should still be here raising her daughter, and I remember.
Going to see her in the hospital after she delivered her. She looked so gray, she looked really, really weak. And I just was like, this doesn't feel right. And literally within, I don't know, 36 hours of me and her sitting there talking and I'm like, Kia, you know, you don't look well. She's like, td, I'm so tired.
She was gone and. Her delivery and her pregnancy exacerbated, um, lupus, which we know is an autoimmune disease, right? And so I think with the proper treatment, with the proper prioritization, with the proper resources and access, she would still be here. So that was the beginning of my foray into this work.
Growing up in Trenton, New Jersey. I think anybody that knows Jersey and knows Trenton has the capital, it's a difficult place. It's a hard city. It's a gritty city. Um, Low rates of graduation from high school. We have low rates of a lot of things, um, and high rates of other things . But one thing Trenton did for me was.
To really embed in me the impact of structural racism and how inequities show up. And I really remember going to different schools to debate. I was a captain of the debate team in high school and other high. Schools had, they were so well resourced. They had like carpet and beautiful computers and we didn't have any of that.
We didn't even have doors in our classrooms. And I remember going back to my school and like, there's something up with this, but now I know this is how the continual disinvestment in communities really plays out structurally and generationally. This is why we have lower rates of graduation. This is why we have lower rates of access to resources.
And this is why we see communities of color. End up the way that they do and, and, and are. It's, there's nothing unintentional about redlining. There's nothing unintentional about the disinvestment, but I just remember that curiosity for, um, re researching health disparities and health inequities was really peaked in high school, both through the loss of my dear friend Ikea more, and also through just this illuminating experience around resources, opportunities, access.
What does it mean to have access to tutor? Books, computers, what does it mean to not? And then that was kind of further peaked. When I went to college, I did my undergraduate degrees at Rutgers University, so I have a BS in Public Health, a BA in Africana Studies, and I remember learning about. Just the history of how these things played out in this country.
What is the history of the Civil Rights Movement? What is the history of the voter rights movement? What is the history of the Women's Rights Movement? How did, how did black women show up in these spaces? And I did my undergraduate thesis on the role of black women in the civil rights movement because we know.
A lot of the men that were leading these spaces. But we don't know about Sat Clark. We don't know about Fannie Lou Hamer. We know by Rosa Parks. But there's so many amazing black women that have led and will lead this country into transformative change. And so that was another space in my life that I think was really explosive.
And then you fast forward grad school? I finished my PhD and then I was doing my postdoc in Baltimore funded by the Kellogg Foundation. I was in the last cohort. Of the Community Health Scholars Program and who was in the program with me. We worked Cubic Cubicle, Dr. Shalan, Irving and Shalan and I Shalan and I would go to lunch together in downtown Baltimore and the Harbor and, you know, Lexington Market and go get our crab cakes and go back to the office and we talk about her mothering journey and we talk about how excited.
She was to be a mother. Her maternal instincts kicked in way before mine. I was still, you know, hustling on the grind. I'm a fresh postdoc. I'm trying to publish everything. I wasn't interested at that time, but she already was. She was already there. And I remember we worked together and she just, I learned so much from her and I just, um, My first paper ever on my CV is with Shalon Irving.
So I see her name every day. She's alive to me every day. Her spirit is alive in me all the time. So I had this really transformative experience in my childhood, you know, the loss of a dear friend and colleague in my adulthood. And I was like, wow, maternal health inequities are so real for black women, both from underserved communities and from wealthier backgrounds.
This is not, you know, excluding people that have higher education. Shalon’s story. National, and there I say international news because it was so preventable and so tragic. This is a woman, tremendous resources, tremendous access, six figure salary, PhDs, I mean, highly accomplished by any formal definition of accomplishment.
And
Laurie: she was a CDC researcher too,
Dr. Amutah: she was a CDC researcher. What was and is, and the most important part about her story, Laurie, is that she was seen eight times. Upon like eight different points of intervention. That number just, just sits in my, in my sphere because I'm like, what was happening in those eight points of intervention?
And her case was not escalated. It was not prioritized. Right. And so by the time she was actually readmitted, it was too late. And so, you know, I'll never forget where I was when I got the call. And I'm like, what do you mean Shalon? She just had a baby. Like I couldn't. Comprehend, my brain was mushed, like won, like what?
She just had a baby. And you know, it's such a loss for the country, for her family, for me, for so many people. And you know, my job in this space as a black working person myself, I just got out of the 12 month postpartum period, my second child. So I'm 13 months postpartum. And. It's imperative that you know, I continue this work.
That's what brought me here and that's what keeps me in a maternal health space, is I carry the spirits of these two friends of mine who are no longer here physically to be able to do this work and to raise their children and frankly, who should be here because of the sheer nature of the preventability of their deaths.
So, that's what brought me to this work, and that's what keeps me here.
Laurie: Oh, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing, and sorry for the losses of your friends. And just knowing that they were preventable as you mentioned, um, and your research and others research really shows that 60 to 70% of maternal. That we hear about and, and see are preventable. Um,
Dr. Amutah: Yes, completely,
Laurie: and what you talked about, in terms of just the impact of systemic racism, of the impact of bias are really just the root causes of this.
And from when you were a child, just experiencing it but not, not putting the words to it. And then through your research and your work, and you're building this body of work for all of us to learn from. You know, now you can, you can put some words to this and also, Know that there are solutions, there are ways that we can prevent this.
Yeah. And yeah. So this center, tell us about your, your, your center and, and the work that your center is doing to really address, uh, this problem and really bring forth the solutions that we know.
Dr. Amutah: Oh my gosh. Well, I'm so excited to chat about the center and I would be remiss if I did not talk about the precursor to the center, which is the mother lab. Right. So, and I head a pandemic about two and a half years ago spring of 2020, I had a very, like full circuit of speaking engagements, talks, panels around maternal health inequities.
And all of that was immediately brought to a halt because of the pandemic. Everything shifted virtually. So a lot of. Students that are in my mother lab, um, would probably not have had the access that they have to me now, but we're in a virtual space. They're chatting me on the side. They're like, this work is incredible and it's, the statistics are so jarring.
What can I do to get involved? And so I started grabbing students from all these schools. I was giving talks that I said, okay, dei, how can I harness is amazing. Body of talent, this pipeline, this next generation of maternal health scholar activists into something that's sustainable, into something that's meaningful, and that is peer based.
And so that's how the Mother Lab started. So MOTHER stands for the Maternal Outcome for Translational Health Equity Research Lab. Um, we have the proud distinction of being the largest research lab in the country dedicated to addressing maternal health inequities and its all levels. Undergraduate, graduate, masters, PhDs, M.
ABCs and 1 2 3 s . Everybody is in the mother lab and it's a virtual remote lab. . We have students from all across the country and it's an incredible space of training. I see the Mother Lab as a training ground for these amazing, ambitious young minds to go into the respective disciplines and change it and to a brute the way that clinical care is provided.
Um, some of my mother lab members. OB GYN residents, some of them are in medical school, some of them are applying to medical school, some of them are in graduate school. And so I see this as an opportunity to permeate the workforce in the clinical space, in the public health, the nursing and social workspace.
That's where most of my students come from. So, That's what we're doing in a mother lab. So the mother lab was the precursor to the center and it's Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice was really developed out of the work of the mother lab whose intention is to address the systemic factors that negatively impact black maternal health outcomes.
And we do this via research, community engagement, advocacy and policy. And so the center has six units. Mother lab is one of them. And really what we're focusing on in the center, Is how do we look at solution focused research? I'm so tired of us looking at the data, which I look at all day around inequities.
And black women are 34 times more likely to die, and 80% of maternal deaths are preventable, and the statistics are jarring, and they are very staggering. So how do we frame that from a solution? Focus lens, right? How do we build on the brilliance and the magic of, of black birthing people to really look at community led policy driven interventions?
How do we do that at both the local and national level? And that's some of the things we're doing in the center. And we are a new center. So mother Lab started in July, 2020. Um, the center was founded at the end, so we launched the center at the end of Black Return Health Week this year. So that was April, 2022.
Our official date is March 28th, 2022. And we do that through webinars, through evidence-based information. Um, we have a tremendous social media platform. We do research. We have six units, so the mother. Research development and grants, um, around sustainability and funding stipending my students and making sure we're able to provide access and resources to community based and community partnered, um, initiatives.
Our maternal health epidemiology, we, I see the center as being a hub of data. I want people to be able to trust what we put out when it comes to maternal health inequities and severe maternal morbid. Um, so we have an amazing quantitative scientist leading that unit. The maternal child health policy unit education and training and community engagement, and all six of these units are.
One framed under the lens of reproductive justice and centering the black birthing experience. But two, they have their own kind of mechanisms that are driving them. Like the director of my, um, maternal health policy unit is a DC Insider. She's worked on a hill. She comes with that federal and state and local.
Legislative lens and she's helping to amplify the work that we're doing in a policy space. What should we be looking at? What should we we be prioritizing? What should we be advocating for? Right? My education and training unit director, how do we focus on creating opportunities to train doulas and midwives and train community members to engage in this conversation around maternal health?
My mother lab unit, how do we continue to make sure we have a pipeline of students who are going into the workforce in these respective disciplines, trained and armed, and really thinking about critically how racism shows up in the practice and delivery of healthcare in public health resources and programs, in social workspaces, in clinical spaces, and in also thinking about community engagement, which to me is at the core of everything we do.
How do we center community, right? And how do we make sure that community. Is prioritized and heard. I sit in so many spaces where community members are not even at the table, and I'm always the one saying, okay, so we're a bunch of talking heads. Where's the community? And so I would be remiss if I started a center that did not center community.
And so we have a community advisory board and I have an amazing director of that unit who really is a community member, but happens to be housed in the academy. And so those are some of the things that we're we're doing, we're just getting started. We have a very robust agenda
Laurie: Great
Dr. Amutah: Yeah. Yeah.
Laurie: I, I love that. And, as you're talking about the center, I, you know, I think I'll, you know, I'm just reflecting on, the work that I think about a lot as well that you do is in terms of we have to approach this, this, this issue from the top down in terms of policy change, but also from the bottom up in.
What can we do today to prevent the deaths today? And it really seems like you are approaching it from both avenues at the same time.
Dr. Amutah: Exactly. And that's, that's what makes our century so unique. So, you know, I do wanna give a shout out. There's two other centers of black maternal health in the country. There's the. Center for Black Maternal Health at Morehouse School of Medicine, and there's another Center for Black Maternal Health at drew Charles, drew University and ucla.
And so, you know, we're kind of all grappling with this, but what I see us doing here at this center, I don't know if there's a blueprint for it, right? Like, I don't know, centers can look at data and community engagement and policy. It's a robust agenda. It's an ambitious agenda, but. I'm just, I'm working off assignment Laurie.
Like, I'm just, I'm so clear on my mission. I'm just unstoppable and, and I the universe that God is just giving me people that also share that un unstoppable hunger. Like my team is portable and that's how you get it done, right? And we figured things out along the way, and that's what we're doing.
Laurie: Exactly. And you know, I noticed with, you know, your center, your foc, you have very specific targets, right? Your, your goal is to reduce maternal mortality, right? But at least half you want to reduce, you know, the C-section rate. And you want to be able to target some key causes of maternal mortality and maternal morbidity, which are conditions that can, that make, that can make people very sick as a result of pregnancy.
You wanna be able to target things like high blood pressure, like you're very specific. So it sounds like the data that you've been able to gather has shown, these are the three areas that are really important to focus on at this time.
Dr. Amutah: Right? Absolutely. And we know that these things save lives, right? When you look at how do we reduce maternal mortality, these maternal safety bundles are proven interventions that when you do them with fidelity the same time, All the time, multiple hospital spaces, you're going to see a reduction. 90% of maternal death due to hemorrhage are preventable.
Why are people so dying from hemorrhage in the United States? And so that's some of the things we're highlighting. And being a non-clinician and working so closely with OB, gys and MFMs, I have such. I see myself as like a bridge to that world because at our core, we, a lot of people would say that we are very different.
Like public health is about population level prevention. Clinical work is about individual level treatment. And so there's like this tension, but I see it as an opportunity really. And I love being able to deepen my relationships, build new relationships with obs, with providers, midwives, mfm, because we, at the end of the day, we want the same thing, which is to save lives.
And so the work that we're. Scientific space is going to save lives. I'm so excited.
Laurie: And it's, and as you're mentioning, it's about the whole team, the whole perinatal healthcare team, the midwives, the doulas, community health workers, you know, the oly clinicians. There's a real important synergy that's needed from the team. What, you know, with this heart of, uh, healthcare, um, uh, award.
You, you know, you, you won this, this challenge. What will you be doing with the $25,000 grant money? Like where, where is this gonna go? I, I know it's probably a drop in the bucket given all the work that needs to happen, but where, what, where do you envision this, this, um, these funds going to, I'm sure there's an opportunity to catalyze a lot of this work that you're, you're moving forward.
Dr. Amutah: Yes. Thank you so much for asking that. So we see this as an initial investment in the training of our students for professional development. I'd like to use the resources to train a cohort of students, some of whom will be from the lab, mother labs, some of whom will be from the community. I see like a mixed high mixed hybrid.
Cohort model. Looking at trainings, we get a lot of requests as a center to participate in trainings around doulas, around maternal health professionals. How do we create resources and opportunities for people to get this training and then go into communities? So we're going to spend that 25,000 on really building out intentionally the professional development needs of our mother lab members and community members with the hope of training a cohort to be doulas and to be able to go into communities.
Laurie: That's amazing and we definitely need more, more doulas. Just, just in case audience doesn't, doesn't know. Can you tell us a little bit about the data around doulas and how that can help really drive down paternal mortality and, and uh, and morbidity.
Dr. Amutah: Yes. So doulas are trained health professionals that assist with birth. They can be present in the pregnancy through the prenatal period in actual labor and delivery postpartum. I've seen bereavement doulas. Um, they're just amazing trained health professionals who. Assist a birthing person, and we know that the research supports having a doula.
I had a doula with both of my deliveries. I'll have a doula with every delivery that I have because I can attest to the benefits. But the research talks about, um, people that have doulas have lower rates of C-section, um, more likely to initiate and sustained breastfeeding, um, lower rates of preterm birth, lower rates of low birth weight, and.
Doulas are an incredible, um, mechanism and conduit in this conversation around driving down these rates of maternal mortality, particularly in black and brown birthing people and the doulas that I have the privilege of working with. Are so incredible and so skilled, and I think they just have, they play such a pivotal role.
But I do wanna say one thing about doulas and I, all my doulas listening will smile when they hear this. Um, I, I really feel like part of our work as a community of people who want to see the rates being driven down is to make sure that doulas are paid a livable wage. And it's just, I've seen right.
Laurie: Can you say that again,
Dr. Amutah: Yeah, drop pay doulas what they need to be paid.
Right. They're saving lives, literally, and they're not able to. Yeah. They're not able to make ends meet, and so until we get a federal or state level mandate or infrastructure or legislation around prioritizing the payment and reimbursement of doulas, I think that is a nice mechanism to make sure that we are able to keep that work.
Flush. Um, but doulas are incredible and I think the work that they do in a birthing space is getting, its due now, but it's very, very long overdue.
Laurie: Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, we've had conversations around, U based care, particularly around maternal health, uh, and really incorporating, uh, the importance of paying doulas, paying midwives, um, ensuring. The birthing bundle can really incorporate the, the evidence that works. Thank you for saying that.
I'd like to to switch a little bit, but it's related. I know, you know, we've had some major, major changes in, in the, in the, in the landscape around reproductive health over the last few months. And you know, we think about the overturning, for example of Roe versus Wade. Like how is this impacting your work?
I'd, I'd love for you. Just, um, maybe make a connection for the audience, particularly around the impact of Roe versus Wade, what it means for black and brown people, what you're seeing the needs are and the impact on maternal health and the health equity.
Dr. Amutah: Yeah. Thank you for asking that question. And you know, I know the beginning part of this podcast has been lighter and really excited, but Ro Wade is a really, really, Nightmarish topic. Um, the overturn of it, and for me and, and the work that I'm doing, I just see this overturn honestly feels like history's starting to repeat itself.
I'm just thinking back to history of slavery in this country where black enslaved women were forced to conceive in order to increase the slave population. Right? And the overturning of Ro v. And the implementation of other restrictions, such as the Height Amendment, puts us right back in a place where black birthing people are forced to give birth.
And for people who are not being given the options to do what they need to do in their best interest, right, with the focus on their bodies, this will. Continue to raise maternal mortality rates. It will continue to disenfranchise populations. And it will continue to create less potential for socioeconomic mobility for certain people furthering and already present racial class divide.
And we know that this is impacting black people and black birthing people disproportionately. Just some quick stats around it. In 2020, the CDC reported that black women had the highest abortion rate and almost 40% of all women who had abortions were. But the ending of this row will lead to about 159,000 more births in a year, um, which will ultimately mean a slight increase in miscarriage, preterm births, and pregnancy complications.
And of the states that have banned or are banning or will ban. Abortion. Many are in a deep south, right, which is where we're already seeing, um, maternity care deserts. We're already seeing less access to necessary and life saving services. We're already seeing more than 30% of communities of color are at least 30 miles away from their closest maternity care.
And so all of these issues are kind of coupling together to exacerbate disparities. And so I think the overturn of Rollie Wade is just. , there's no part of that overturn that's going to benefit black and brown birthing people or any birthing person,
Laurie: Yeah, just hearing those statistics, it's, it just, you
Dr. Amutah: it's bizarre.
Laurie: Shs down my, my spine and just really highlights the importance of, of your work in terms of addressing access, ensuring that there are key models of, of care that really can address the maternal health inequities that, that we're seeing.
And just the ripple effects, the shock waves of this overturning on just the broader landscape of reproductive health, of maternal health. It's, um, it's really just, uh, shocking.
Dr. Amutah: Yes, it is. It is. And so we have to continue to fight. This midterm election that we just had was so telling, and I think the main election coming in 24 is gonna be even more essential. And so I tell people all the time, people are like, what can I do? It's all about all politics are local. All politics are local.
Make those connections. Keep those connections. Here in Massachusetts, we have amazing legislators fighting for us and fighting with us. I'm so privileged to work alongside amazing people like Congresswoman Ayanna Presley. Proud to call her a collaborator, a friend, proud to call representative, soon to be State Senator Liz Miranda.
So these are people that are working and tirelessly advocating on our behalf. But I tell people all the time, who contact the center, what can I do? It's all. Making sure at the local level you're doing what you can do. You're serving as a safe haven, you're advocating, you're calling, you're fighting. Um, and so I think we have to be really clear that these things are not in any way going to help birthing people.
Laurie: We talked about, the. Wade and overturning, what are some of the biggest roadblocks you faced in your work and other, other roadblocks? I think, um, you know, this overturning of Ro v Wade and you know, has significant impacts moving forward as well. What are some other roadblocks?
Dr. Amutah: So many other roadblocks that I think are really around, um, resources. And so when you're, when you're trying to do this transformative revolutionary work from the ground up, you need infrastructure. And I think one of the things that I think about all the time, And really what keeps me up at night is sustainability, right?
Like I have this vision. I have an amazing, incredible team that works literally day and night to help move the work forward, to respond to requests from community members to respond and hold ourselves accountable in so many spaces that the center's called to show up in. And um, I think that's a big barrier, is having to think.
How are you gonna keep the lights on and how you're gonna keep your doors open? And, you know, what does that mean if you, if you don't get funding, how do you show up in community and what's, you know, what do you need to cut and who can be full-time and who's gonna be part-time and who, these are the considerations.
And most of that is administrative, but it does have an impact on the way the center's able to show up and respond. I need more staff, I need more full-time staff. A lot of my key staff are part-time because that's what we can afford right now. So I think that's a barrier. Um, I'll also, That a lot of times the way that we approach.
The reduction or the, OR working towards eliminating and reducing maternal health. Inequity is so siloed, right? Like I get calls all the time from state and local and federal legislators and governing bodies and organizations, but nobody's talking to each other, . And so I see this really siloed, frantic, a little bit response and.
My goal is to work smart in our harder, right? How do we bring people together? How do we coalition build? How do we strategize, um, how do we create other models that are gonna be successful and sustainable? And that's. Frankly how I keep myself motivated in the game and not burn myself out by doing all these things piecemeal, but really trying to scale.
And that's, that's another thing that I think is problematic as we think intentionally about reducing these inequities. We have to think really critically about how do we. Work together. How does policy overlap with community? How does community overlap with research and who's funding all of these things to overlap with each other?
And so that's another barrier that I'm seeing is this really siloed approach both. The local level and in research and policy and community spaces, but also when it comes to funding, there's no kind of systematic response that organizations like mine can tap into and, and get the resources that we need.
So those are the two big things I would say. This siloed response and then frankly, just the resources and the funding opportunities to be able to plan clearly and comfortably three to five years down the.
Laurie: Right. You're, you're absolutely right in terms of, um, you know, the, the siloed responses. I mean, I think that the visibility of this work has really skyrocketed over the last, you know, I would even say last, last decade. And so there, there's definitely more interest and more visibility, which is definitely needed.
Um, and, and really thinking about how to synergize efforts, um, and provide. Is really critical. Um, again, like, you know, this top down policy change piece and then this bottom up, how to support people on the ground doing the work, um, and getting it done and, and making the change. I, I, I That totally makes, makes sense.
Um, what's, what's next for you in the center and, and how can, how can people support your work?
Dr. Amutah: Yeah, that. Thank you so much. So what's next for the center is we have a very robust, ambitious calendar for 2023. We are. You know, and I, I, my staff will tell you this, I'm so clear and hypersensitive frankly to the way that we show up and respond to community. So we have a number of things we're on the hook for community co-sponsored, partnered events around like I see us doing.
Um, there's an amazing artist out of Chicago, Ashley, Jan. And we're going to do an art exhibit showcasing her work on preeclampsia and help syndrome and how she survived a near miss. And so that's something the center is doing, this community facing that's focused on healing through arts in the maternal health space.
I see us doing a number of documentaries and screenings around aftershock. There's another movie that we were asked, um, sponsored to screen. At your cervix. I see us looking at black motherhood through the lens. Like there's all this incredible work coming out in a film space and a documentary space that we're honored to co-sponsor and to hold space for community and black birthing people.
I also see us doing a lot in the research space. Our conference next year is gonna be, April 7th, 2023. It's our sixth annual conference during Black Maternal Health Week. We do it every year since 2018, since even before I had the center. But our sixth annual theme is on centering the role of nurses and midwives in addressing maternal health inequities.
How do we pay due and. Yeah, how do we really honor the clinical partners, the nurses that are bedside on l and d and labor and delivery that are really holding space and saying, no, no, no. This is a hemorrhage. This is need to be escalated. No, no, no. Her blood pressure's at 180. That's not normal. What do we do?
And so holding space for nurses and midwives, um, at our sixth annual conference in April, doing a number of community facing events. Also continuing to train the mother lab. The resources from this Heart of Healthcare podcast are gonna go into professional development to make sure that all my mother Lab students and young professionals are ready for whatever's next in their career.
Whether that's helping them get additional research skills. Some of them wanna be doulas, get them trained as doulas. Some of them wanna go on to do different things. How do we prepare them? So I see us. And also, yeah, I'd love to host a black tie gala. Sometime I just told my team that earlier today, , sometime in the fall around fundraiser, let's do a silent auction and raise some good money for the center that we can then funnel back to communities.
And so we have a robust agenda. It's a tall order for 2023 and beyond. Um, I also see us writing a number of grants. I would be remiss if I did not hold space for the sheer amount of time it takes to put out grants and response to proposals and my incredible team that's working on that. But I think the, the most, I.
Thing that we can do right now, and it's not lost on me that we're recording this podcast on Giving Tuesday. It's for people to be able to provide opportunities to give and for us to be able to do the work in a way that's sustainable. And so, those resources and those opportunities. Are gonna be top of mind for the center, but also, holding space for community.
Continuing to do that, continuing to be a vessel for information. I am really excited to be able to have friends in high places that value the work that the center is doing for me. When I get requests from community members, Hey, I had a traumatic birthing experience, or I lost a full term pregnancy.
How do I hold this system accountable? What do I do with this? And I'm like, oh, I have friends in attorney general's office. We can get that taken care of, right? Like I can connect you to places. That's what I see the center doing. You don't have a center that has reproductive justice in a title. And not be able to stand up when those types of calls come in.
So I see us continuing to do that. I see us continuing to contribute to the scientific literature. I see us continuing to do amazing podcasts like this. You know, the future is just so bright and there's so much need. Um, and I see us being able to continue to expand and to do more and more and more.
Laurie: Yes, the future is definitely bright, um, especially with, with the work that you're doing, and I just really love how you've integrated community. Into this work so meaningfully and how you're building those partnerships and, and leading with, with community. Uh, I think that's really critical to be able to addressing this significant problem around maternal health and maternal health inequities.
Uh, what, you know, why don't we end off, I'd love to end off with just hearing what brings you hope.
Dr. Amutah: What brings me hope, I'll be honest with you, when I look at my two beautiful children, I have to give them a shout and I have a, at the time of this recording, , I have a three and a half year old, his son, um, IKU, and I have a one year old Uche, and I look at their beautiful brown faces, two boys, and I see such innocence and light.
That's what brings me hope. I. So obsessed with the future being better for them and when they choose to partner and, and start their families and who their wives would be, who my daughter-in-laws would be, right? I think about that all the time, even though they're three years older and one, I'm like, what kinda daughter-in-law am I gonna get?
Right? If, if that's what they choose to be with. And so that's what I think about. And that's what gives me hope, right, is, is, is ensuring that I have done my part and that I continue to do my part to hold space for black and brown birthing people, their partners and the communities that we come from.
It's so incredibly important that when you get to the table, when you've arrived, as my mother would say, that you look back, you look across, you look next to. And as someone that looks like you, that's why my team is intentionally curated the way that it is. If you go to our website, black Maternal Health dot tough study to you, just look at my team, just take a look at my team.
This is the future. This is what gives me hope. These beautiful brown faces and these beautiful women and young people that are so driven to make an impact. So that's what, that's what keeps me up, and that's what gives me hope, is how do we create spaces for better outcomes, right? How do we ensure. These two friends that I lost, their children when they decide to give birth are not.
In a space where they're having to have those conversations and advocate and fight. Really, it's a fight to get the type of healthcare that they deserve. So we have a lot of work ahead of us, but I think there's so many people committed to this and we have such a real window with the traction that maternal health inequities are getting right now, that we would be remiss if we didn't bust this door down.
Right? This is not something you just walk up and tap on the window. You gotta knock it. And if you're not moving with that force, you're gonna miss the opportunity. So that's what gives me hope is that there's a lot of force around this topic right now.
Laurie: Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Aumutah. Thank you for all of your work. I love how you ended with looking at the future and the importance of this work. I think that's so critical, and for all of you listening in black maternal health.tufts.edu. Go check it out. You're more about Indi Ivanka's Amazing work, and thank you for joining us all today.
Dr. Amutah: Thank you.