Black Maternal Health Week – Join in on events this week ! Advocate & educated about the issues facing mothers today. #BMHW19
https://blackmamasmatter.org/bmhw/
Category: health
Breastfeeding education and support for new mothers is an important ongoing issue. There are many decisions and questions regarding breastfeeding versus formula feeding. A few of those include: should you alternate between both bottle and breast, how long should you breastfeed over time, what type of latching-on techniques should you use, when is the time to start pumping, how should you store pumped milk, etc.?
As a new parent, one’s lactation questions can be endless. Why is breastfeeding important? Why should parents care?
There are many reasons why breast milk is regarded as the highest form of nutrition infants can obtain. Mothers pass important nutritional antibodies through breast milk that have been observed to benefit overall infant health. Breastfeeding potentially lessens the occurrence of long-term health conditions, such as the prevalence of obesity, type II diabetes, SIDS, gastrointestinal infections and asthma. Mothers also benefit, as breastfeeding promotes a natural way to rebalance hormones and maintain weight loss after pregnancy. Long-term health benefits also include reduced risk of female endocrine-related cancers, such as breast or ovarian cancer, high blood pressure and type II diabetes. In the US, it is recommended to breastfeed exclusively at least up to 6 months after birth. However, average statistics have shown only 1 in 4 women does so.
Despite the bonding benefits of breastfeeding and the positive health outcomes nursing may have for both mom and baby, the decision to nurse is not always an easy one. Everyone’s breastfeeding journey is personal and unique. Often, individuals require support and guidance through the post-birth journey. Sometimes problems arise. Women can experience lactating difficulties, latch issues, sometimes health concerns or pre-existing conditions prevent the possibility of breastfeeding, and women who experience mastitis are often confused about how to proceed.
In the Tampa Bay area, support can be found at many local organizations including the Tampa Bay Breastfeeding Task Force. The Tampa Bay Breastfeeding Task Force is a nonprofit organization that hosts events for breastfeeding activism, they also provide support and answers to questions via their social media and website platforms. Events such as Breastfeeding Friendly Daycare Training, promote their #TBBreastfeeds and the Breastfeeding Normalization Campaign. TBB is also known partners in advocacy efforts with the Florida Breastfeeding Coalition, which provides support for breastfeeding as well as promoting state recommended resources for those needing more information. Their mission “is to improve the health of Floridians by working collaboratively to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.”
If you are in need of professional assistance or are looking for more information, the La Leche League of Florida and the Caribbean Isles connects volunteers with lactation consultants and local nursing mothers’ groups. The Tampa Breastfeeding and Lactation Center LLC or Breastfeeding Care and Consulting, run by Jocelyn Pridemore also offers consultations for new mothers. Different services are available at a variety of prices from high to low. Additionally, if you are seeking access to breast milk, check out charitable organizations such as Mother’s Milk Bank of Florida, which is dedicated disseminating pasteurized donor milk to those in need. They also welcome donations of breast milk. Please spread the word!
If you are interested here is an additional link to some helpful breastfeeding techniques:
https://www.pregnancybirthbaby.org.au/breastfeeding-your-baby
Article info sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/index.htm
https://www.womenshealth.gov/breastfeeding
https://www.womenshealth.gov/breastfeeding
Web Links to Local Orgs and Lactation Specialists
Tampa Breastfeeding and Lactation Center LLC: https://www.breastfeedtampa.com/
Breastfeeding Care and Consulting with Jocelyn Pridemore: http://breastfeedingcareandconsulting.com/
The Florida Breastfeeding Coalition: http://www.flbreastfeeding.org/
The Tampa Bay Breastfeeding Task Force: http://www.tbbreastfeeding.org/
La Leche League of Florida and the Caribbean Isles: http://www.lllflorida.com/lalecheleague/
Mother’s Milk Bank of Florida: https://milkbankofflorida.org/
This article was researched and made possible by Alexandra Valdes as part of a service-learning internship with USF. Read more below or click the image to find out more about our student authors:
The American Medical Association says that women of color are 2- 6 times more likely to die from pregnancy complications than white woman depending on where they live. There are many factors that can contribute to this disproportionality, including quality of prenatal delivery and postpartum care. This mortality rate has significant detrimental effects on the black community as countless mothers are lost to this vicious cycle.
Likewise, economically disadvantaged women are less likely to receive quality healthcare and are thus also less likely to receive prenatal care. This leaves black mothers more likely than white mothers to have hypertension, blood disorders, and other medical conditions that complicate their pregnancies. A recent article by USA Today explores the surprisingly high rates of hospitals blaming mothers’ preexisting conditions for high maternal mortality rates among women of color, especially black women. Before USA Today conducted a study and critically examined these shocking maternal mortality rates, these numbers have been overlooked because hospitals are allowed to keep this information private. By keeping this information away from the public, many hospitals have been excusing their poor outcomes by blaming the health of the mother.
Apart from the legal actions that can be taken to decrease mortality rates of women of color, there are organizations and individuals who, through means of advocacy, let this information come to the light and make a conscious effort to put a stop to it. Employing advocacy through visibility, Kimberly Seals Allers, is an international speaker, author, and the founder and organizer of Black Breastfeeding Week among other things. Kimberly is on a mission to “shift the paradigm, shift the discourse, shift the infrastructure, and shift the experience of womankind and motherhood for all”.
In the Tampa Bay area, Chinelle Rojas is working hard to shift the narrative. Chinelle is the birth photographer behind Dear Little One Birth Photography and is the founder of The Melanated Birth, in which she uses photography to represent women of color in birth. She believes that photography is a powerful tool, especially when u towards a powerful cause. Chinelle has observed the lack of diversity in the birth photography community and is taking steps towards solving this problem. She advocates that ultimately visibility can be an important step in reducing mortality rates for women. Photographing the births of women of color outside a hospital setting increases awareness of different birth options available apart from the standard hospital epidural birth. She is hoping to spread a message about the possibility of giving birth in alternative settings. She argues that many mothers-to-be, only know of other women who gave birth in a hospital. Seeing photographs of black women giving birth with the help of doulas and midwives in a comfortable setting can be the start of another woman’s successful journey into motherhood.
“‘Imagine a world where our little pebble of documenting births can make waves on the mortality rate of mothers across the country or the world.’” –Chinelle Rojas
http://www.tampabirthphotographer.com/
Additional Resources:
http://blackbreastfeedingweek.org
http://www.kimberlysealsallers.com
Article sources:
American Medical Association. State-specific maternal mortality among black and white women: United States, 1987–1996. The Journal of the American Medical Association. 1999;282(13):1220–1222.
Young, Alison, et al. “Hospitals Blame Moms When Childbirth Goes Wrong. Secret Data Suggest It’s Not That Simple.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 9 Mar. 2019, http://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/deadly-deliveries/2019/03/07/maternal-death-rates-secret-hospital-safety-records-childbirth-deaths/2953224002/.
This article was researched and made possible by Vana Madhu as part of a service-learning internship with USF. Read more below or click the image to find out more about our student authors:
With pregnancy journeys changing in the modern world, offering a vast array of birth plans, classes, and medical options, one can get a bit overwhelmed. Support from Doulas and midwives can potentially help answer questions one may have as a mother, as well as provide additional support along with family and friends throughout this experience, whether it is your first pregnancy experience or not. During pregnancy, doulas and midwives provide companionship and a non-traditional approach to birth utilized in much of the world, however, they are not viewed as commonplace along with standard US medical practices regarding pregnancy and childbirth.
Though many have heard of midwives, most are unfamiliar with doulas until they begin research into their pregnancy experience or even hear from pregnancy companions. Doulas, or birth companions as they are commonly referred, are certified and experienced individuals who serve to provide encouragement and assistance to mothers throughout their pregnancy journey as well as after childbirth. Whether they provide emotional and physical assistance, educational information on child care and childbirth, or advising and comfort postpartum depression, their goal is to serve as a birthing companion, focused on the mother’s well-being to promote a healthy pregnancy experience with additional support.
A unique aspect of the mother doula relationship dynamic is that it begins before pregnancy, to support the birth plans of the mother, and is not focused on providing medical care, but experience knowledge on childcare, labor, and delivery. Doulas are can also be viewed as more involved in the pregnancy experience of an individual mother versus the traditional midwife, as they can assist with basic needs for families after pregnancy and directly assist in newborn care. Midwives, in contrast, are able to provide medical treatment and perform medical examinations on mothers, which requires advanced training in clinical nurse studies. However, they are also able to emotionally support mothers throughout the pregnancy experience in a similar fashion to a doula.
For the Tampa Bay area, the Tampa Bay Birth Network provides a vast array of information on local midwives and Doulas in the listing those available through their contact network and even has members themselves certified in the field of midwifery and doula studies. For example, Zulgeil Ruiz-Ginés recently relocated to Florida in 2018 and currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Tampa Bay Birth Network as their Diversity and Inclusion Officer. However, she has undergone training in midwifery and doula certification. In her current position, she is finalizing her licensure to practice midwifery in Florida and hopes to serve her new community to the best of my abilities in the coming future.
Should you like to get in touch with the Tampa Bay Birth Network and Zul please email:
Article sources:
https://www.dona.org/what-is-a-doula/
https://americanpregnancy.org/labor-and-birth/having-a-doula/
https://www.allnursingschools.com/articles/doula/
About this blog: This blog has been created in partnership with a service-learning initiative at USF. Meet our interns!
Alexandra Valdes is a senior undergraduate student studying biomedical sciences at the University of South Florida. She is currently on the pre-med track and hopes future medical studies focus on women’s health and pediatrics after graduating in the fall of 2019. In partnership with the Honors College at USF, she is currently taking community service courses focused on women’s health and fertility studies that have given her this opportunity to be involved in this exciting community project with the Museum of Motherhood. Through this project, she hopes to help improve how information and communication between birth-support networks and mothers can occur within the Tampa Bay community to benefit families and mothers. She is the proud daughter and eldest sibling of an amazing single mother and a younger brother who have constantly shown her the support to pursue her dreams in higher education and personal life, and will always be grateful for their continual presence and impact on her life. She grateful for this opportunity and can’t wait to see where this project will go in the coming future
Hello, my name is Bhavana Madhu (I preferred to be called Vana) and I am a first-year undergraduate student at the University of South Florida, Tampa. I am pursuing a degree in biomedical sciences and am passionate about women’s health and women’s studies. In my free time, you can find me working out at the gym, reading a thriller novel, watching T.V. shows, or spending quality time with my family. I have a soft spot for spicy food, creepy YouTube documentaries, and science fiction novels. I found out about the Museum of Motherhood through a fellow classmate of mines, Alexandra Valdes (who is also an intern for the Museum of Motherhood), in our honors class ‘Fertility and the Future’. This class explores the social and behavioral sciences by examining family-making as a bio-cultural process and examining associated issues that arise across a variety of geographic contexts while incorporating local examples within national and global struggles to ‘reproduce’ the future. As part of the service-learning requirement for the class, Lexi and I have chosen to pursue an internship at MOM. I was interested in being an intern for the Museum of Motherhood because the goals and visions of MOM piqued my interest. I want to expand MOM’s reach and help network by connecting with potential partners and organizations in an effort to make this museum more well-known in the Tampa Bay area. I am excited to work with MOM and hope I can contribute something positive during my time as an intern here.