WORCESTER—The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation recently granted $360,000 to support 12 organizations dedicated to improving perinatal health across the state, including the Family Health Center of Worcester. In particular, the funding is meant to help enhance access to doula care for pregnant individuals in communities of color.
This initiative is part of the foundation’s broader strategy to address structural racism and eliminate racial health disparities through grantmaking and policy analysis, said the Blue Cross announcement. A team collaborated with more than 30 community organizations and leaders to shape the Perinatal Health Initiative.
Several grant recipients are focusing on strengthening the doula workforce, consisting of trained, non-medical professionals who assist during and after pregnancy. Recently, MassHealth began covering doula services to boost maternal health and reduce disparities in communities of color.
“This new grant program will expand the capacity of community organizations leading local perinatal health efforts to improve health outcomes,” said Audrey Shelto, president and CEO of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, in a statement. “Over the next year, these projects will provide education and supports, further develop doula and other perinatal services in key communities, and advance statewide policy and advocacy that will make perinatal health more equitable.”
The Foundation’s Board of Directors approved one-year grants, ranging from $20,000 to $50,000, to each of the following nonprofit organizations and their projects:
- Family Nurturing Center of Massachusetts to support newly arrived Haitian migrant families with babies and young children living in emergency shelters in Boston, connecting them to vital resources such as well-child visits, diapers, playgroups and developmental screenings.
- First Teacher Boston to provide perinatal health education to black and brown families in Dorchester and Roxbury with a series of small-group workshops and a prenatal/postpartum resource toolkit
- Propa City Community Outreach, which will provide its services focused on perinatal health education and peer support to Boston’s communities of color who are dealing with pregnancy loss.
- Perinatal Wellness Support Center of the Cape & Islands, to provide its six-week training offered in English, Spanish and Portuguese that covers childbirth education, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, breastfeeding, nutrition and other prenatal and postpartum health issues.
- Sacred Birthing Village, which will expand its multilingual perinatal education program in Greater New Bedford, provided by community volunteers to individuals through their pregnancy and one year following birth.
- Birth Equity & Justice Massachusetts, which will continue to bring the birth equity community together and be a voice on perinatal policy and advocacy, including efforts to support recent migrants in Massachusetts.
- Family Health Center of Worcester to support its “OB Advocate” program that provides an advocate, who is trained as a doula, to a patient from pregnancy to two years following birth.
- Massachusetts PPD Fund, which will be able to expand its perinatal mental health training series and raise awareness about perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, a pregnancy complication affecting 1 in 5 new mothers.
- Tufts University’s Center for Black Maternal Health & Reproductive Justice, which will create a digital toolkit to assist doulas with the MassHealth enrollment process and improve access to doula services for Black and Brown pregnant people.
- Berkshire Nursing Families, in support of the next phase of its partnership with Springfield Family Doulas to train and mentor Black doulas and lactation counselors in Berkshire County.
- Mass Law Reform Institute, and the Massachusetts Doula Coalition to deepen its capacity for ongoing policy and advocacy efforts as the statewide doula provider community navigates the new MassHealth coverage benefit.
- Neighborhood Birth Center to expand its policy capacity by having staff represent the broader birth center and provider community in Greater Boston, including doulas, midwives, and nurse midwives.
“The Foundation’s commitment to funding community-based organizations working in maternal and perinatal health is invaluable,” said Jallicia Jolly, co-chair of Birth Equity & Justice Massachusetts, said in the announcement.
The Foundation has also been collaborating with other foundations working in perinatal health, and this group of funders has agreed to host a statewide convening focused on birth equity in the future.
Send news releases to Charlene Arsenault at carsenault@theworceserguardian.org
As the Worcester Guardian marks nearly a year of delivering free, independent digital news to our city, our dedication to this mission strengthens. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to support our ongoing commitment to providing hyperlocal news coverage to Worcester. Scroll to the bottom of our home page to sign up for our daily newsletter
