about | maternal-health

Brought to you by:

The University of Utah College of Social Work: Voices of Diversity

The Community School of Midwifery
Midwives College of Utah
The Healing Group

“In the arena of the client population that is being treated we as providers are not seeing the tags that would alert us to problems. The ability to see and not be oblivious requires us to start taking responsibility” - Claudia Booker

It is important for us to recognize that in world of birth, we as providers for women are not in a separate universe from the rest of society. The world of birth is in fact a microcosm of our society, and all of the preconceptions, ideas, and conditions that exist in the broader society exist and are played out in the world of birth. We in North America have caught a disease that we must examine in the context of birth if we are to ensure that women, babies, families, and the communities that they share are able flourish in equality, with respect and with equal access to all that our country has to offer.

Why do disparities exist? A look at the effects of chronic lifelong stress, socially created despair and hopelessness, economic stress, lack of social mobility, lack of representation, lack of expectations, and other areas of lack that impact birth outcomes.

What is the Disease? How do racism, privilege, entitlement, and the inability to see other points of view outside of our own bubble of perceptions create a social disease that creates disparities in maternal health outcomes?

   What do we need to do? We need to start to see, validate and hear each other inner-professionally, so that we can hear and see the needs of women holistically and within the culturally appropriate context of the treatment we provide.

What can we do to change disparities in outcomes of maternal health as care providers?

Look at ideas to implement change:
    1. Creating Community Based verses Community Placed Programs
    2. Creating space for cultural competencies within education systems
    3. Increasing access, incentive, and programs that include representatives

from all groups from the inception of their creation
4. Gain humility and respect, and recognizing that we are not always the appropriate

one to be sitting at every table.
5. Make sure that diversity is visible in education programs, health programs, and

that decision makers include representatives who bring their unique

prospective to the table of addressing disparities at the beginning of the

conversation.

Individual breakout sessions will examine more specifically how specific groups are effected by disparities, and how to train care providers who have the information on the mores and appropriate language to understand the needs and problems of that subgroup. More specific information on how disparities effect women are addressed in breakout sessions including: lesbian mothers, perinatal mental health disparities, women with eating disorders, teen moms, incarcerated women, and gaining cultural awareness and competencies in areas of race and gender.

We need to come together within our specialties locally and then globally. We need to bring all of our specialties to the same table with the community to develop a local plan and strategies for implementation that can then be adapted globally to remove disparities that exist within maternal health outcomes.

Conference Schedule: March 22nd and March 23rd
Place: University of Utah College of Social Work, Goodwill Humanitarian Building, Okazaki Community Meeting Room, 155
Cost: $30 (Includes reception food, and lunch for the main conference day)

March 22nd: Reception With Claudia Booker and film screening from 6-8pm

March 23rd: Key-Note Address- Birth in a World of Colors
Claudia Booker CPM, JD

Other topic sessions include: Working With Lesbian Mothers; Perinatal Mental Health Disparities; Working with Incarcerated Women; Bridging Evidence Based Practice with Tradition and Culture- Is Disparity Killing Us?; Cultural Competencies; Eating Disorders in Pregnant and Postpartum Women; Working With Teen Mothers; Panel Discussion- Connecting Professionals

When The Bough Breaks:

Bridging the Gaps of Inequality in Maternal Health Care Disparities