Fusing Birth Justice with Economic Justice: A Community-Rooted Model for Supporting Black Birthing People

Overview: In this session, members of Equity Before Birth will share how the community-rooted non-profit organization has implemented an organization model that centers the needs, voice, experiences, and expertise of Black birthing people to directly address economic injustice and reduce inequities in birthing and infant outcomes.Proposal text: Background/Rationale: Historically, Black birthing people disproportionately experience worst maternal health outcomes in the United States (U.S.) with Black women 3.5 times more likely to die during pregnancy or within the first year after childbirth than non-Hispanic White women (National Institutes of Health [NIH], 2021). Black birthing people are particularly affected by the increasing rate of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S., which has more than doubled since 1987. Of these deaths, over 60% could have been prevented through access to equitable prenatal care, care during labor and delivery, and postpartum healthcare services. Economic inequities play a key role in how racial inequities manifest as health disparities. Recent studies show paid parental leave dramatically improve birth outcomes for both the birthing person and the infant, contributing to lower parental stress, improved mental health, and cognitive advancements among babies (Troller-Renfree et al., 2022). Reducing experiences of racial discrimination in healthcare by promoting Black-led community-based providers have also been identified as a critical step in improving birth and infant outcomes among Black people (Megibow et al., 2021). This workshop seeks to draw attention to Equity Before Birth, one organization directly tackling both economic and racialized barriers faced by Black birthing people through sponsorship, (e.g., supplemental income), partnership (e.g., doula services), and fundraising. With its community-rooted organizational model that centers the voice, experiences, needs, and expertise of Black birthing people, Equity Before Birth offers critical insights for social work practice, research, and education. These insights will be identified and explored during this workshop with the use of multimedia, interactive activities, facilitated discussions, and counternarratives.

Objectives: Guided by the tenets of critical race theory, this workshop will: discuss the mission, vision, and impact to-date of Equity Before Birth (EBB), a non-profit organization using the unique approach of sponsorship, partnership, and fundraising to reduce the economic inequities that contribute to poorer health outcomes among Black birthing people and their infants. Through multimedia, counter-narratives, and interactive activities, strategies that are used among EBB team and board members to consistently center Black birthing people’s voice, needs, experiences, and expertise is are identified and discussed. Last, attendees will be engaged in a deeper discussion of how EBB’s community-rooted organizational model challenges and can inform traditional measures of implementation, data collection, and evaluation within social work practice, research, and education.

Conclusions and Implications: This in-depth discussion of how one innovative community-rooted organization directly addresses health disparities and the socioeconomic correlates faced by Black birthing people exemplifies values and practices that have the capacity to inform the development and delivery of more racially equitable social work practice, research methods, and educational policies. These insights from Equity Before Birth to the social work field can benefit both service providers and the individuals, groups, communities, and organizations we serve as well as our interactions with other disciplines, including healthcare providers, facilitating the positioning of social work as a key partner to organizations like Equity Before Birth that are fighting for the lives of Black birthing people and children.