The Crisis
Motherhood in the US has been killing women for centuries (2 women nearly every day of each year); the irony that giving life would result in a woman losing her own, is unimaginable. Yet the issue has largely gone ignored nationally despite the relentless efforts of advocates, until celebrities spotlighted their outrage due to their personal experiences. This demonstrates that the maternal mortality issue transects income, education, and social status. Consequently, its direct impact on public figures and celebrities has captured national attention recently. Most concerning is that like other healthcare outcomes, maternal mortality unveils racial disparities among women. Impacted the greatest are Black, American Indian, and Alaskan Native Americans. In addition to decreasing the losses, we ought to consider also the many more women who are either impaired or disabled from pregnancy related medical complications.
Despite the new national and local action plans, we have a long road ahead to catch up even to some developing countries with lower death rates. Most encouraging is that most deaths are preventable. There are many unanswered questions, including the most obvious, how do we get there? Historically, the healthcare system has understudied, underfunded, and subsequently underserved certain populations and so, there’s uncertainty regarding how to address this critical issue for these groups of women, the people medicine knows the least.
HBC Brings Hope
Amid such uncertainty there is hope. And the hope is built on solid facts. Women exceed in community settings. Women of color succeed when we are given the resources to do so. We know that educating women increases a country's GDP (gross domestic product). Could you imagine the impact educating women about pregnancy can have on the maternal mortality rate? Representation in Medicine matters, as recent studies show that even the survival of Black infants depends on the race of the clinician. This summarizes the platform of Healthy Bump Club. We are a community of women, led by women of color healthcare professionals empowering moms, with a special focus on moms of color. We provide educational and coaching services aiding women in being healthier and more informed at the time of conception, throughout their pregnancies and during the yearlong postpartum period.
The Vision
Help us help women! We have launched a basic website, but this is just the beginning. Current web design platforms and tools do not meet the construction needs of our website, requiring us to hire a web developer with advanced programming skills. The funding from the campaign will be used to cover the cost of the customized programming. We are building a platform that will help us track our clients’ progress using several standardized healthcare benchmarks; conduct interactive webinars, provide one-on-one coaching sessions, and simultaneously enable each client to also monitor their coaching goals, complete health assessments, register for webinars and sign-up for upcoming coaching sessions using a user-friendly interface for our busy moms. Also, our design will allow our community partners to track the attendance and progress of the women they register for our services. They will receive individualized progress reports.
We are also building a community; our goal, is to facilitate on-going dialogue between women who are members through our website. They will have access to the input of our professional team. Additionally, we are building a secure environment. Privacy is a high priority so that our clients will feel free to share their medical concerns in a secure environment. Our website must meet HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, 1996) standards, the highest level of privacy required by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. We are also building medical knowledge by participating in the dialogue of the healthcare community using the gained insight our platform provides, collectively improving our service to women. This requires advanced analysis of the aggregate data of our clients. We are committed to actively learning from our members and filling the medical gap by valuing and voicing their input. As we become more knowledgeable, we can train our medical colleagues in caring for moms of color and ultimately decrease the preventable losses.
