Maternal and Infant Health White Paper Series
The State of Black Arizona, in collaboration with March of Dimes, is proud to unveil their latest initiative: a groundbreaking awareness campaign focusing on Black Maternal Infant Health in Arizona. Building upon the success of their previous endeavors, this partnership aims to further elevate awareness and drive positive change in our communities.
March of Dimes convenes the National Mom & Baby Action Network (M-BAN). They are dedicated to leading and facilitating change across policy, research, funding, and systems to promote health equity and improving the birthing experience for Black mothers.
By adopting the Mom & Baby Action Network National Equity Framework, we aim to engage Black stakeholders and the larger community from different sectors, establish a common agenda, and call Arizona stakeholders to take positive action for change.
Disproportionate Black maternal and infant morbidity and mortality rates nationally and in Arizona are preventable alarming public health issues. The data from the Centers for Disease Control (2023) underscores the urgency to address these stark racial disparities. For example, Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than White women. Moreover, those disparities increase with age, and maternal health inequities widened for Black women during the COVID-19 pandemic. Black women are more likely than White women to have certain birth risk factors contributing to infant mortality and Black mothers were twice as likely to receive late or no prenatal care as compared to non-Hispanic White mothers. The loss in the Black community of the death of an infant before their first birthday is avoidable, yet tragically there is a 2.4 times greater infant mortality rate compared to non-Hispanic White mothers; a four times greater likelihood to die from complications related to low birth rate and 2.9 times sudden infant death syndrome. Variations in quality healthcare, social determinants of health, underlying chronic conditions, structural racism, and implicit bias contribute to these heartbreaking disparities.
To ensure all Arizonan women receive equitable care, The State of Black Arizona is building more awareness and activism. We seek to create a call to action on a range of strategies from organizations and groups to amplify the improvements needed within the system – treatment, access, clinical measures, and elevate the lived experiences of Black mothers. Our actions align with your priorities to "invest in and improve the communities where we live and serve" by contributing data, outreach, and education to advance health equity and community resiliency—specifically, this campaign's impact on removing the barriers to short and/or long-term needs of Black mothers and their children.
Our goal is to increase awareness about Black Maternal and Infant Health in the State of Arizona by providing access to data, publishing white papers, and convening community meetings to elevate this issue to community visibility, examine policy implications, understand proactive clinical measures, and move this awareness in the direction of the vital power of collective action.
The proposed outcomes are as follows:
- Improve the understanding and knowledge of Black Maternal and Infant Health issues in Arizona regarding the challenges and opportunities for positive impact among cross-sector stakeholders and community members (Arizonans, women, mothers, medical providers, payer employers, and policy leaders).
- Improve access to organizations and practitioners in the Valley providing culturally tailored care to Black Arizonans to improve health outcomes and quality of life.
We’d like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our sponsors or those actively engaged in bringing this project to fruition. Your unwavering support is not only invaluable but also instrumental in ensuring the success of our mission.
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