With a $50,000 grant from the Connecticut Health Foundation, Griffin Hospital will work with clinicians, community-based organizations, and patients to develop a model for delivering maternal health care that addresses inequities and focuses on leading causes of severe complications and death during and after pregnancy.
The model will focus on hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and mental health. It will include support during pregnancy and one-year postpartum, and will include strategies to increase access to care; screening for risk factors and referrals to services; team-based care that includes doulas and community health workers; and strategies to incorporate evidence-based approaches into routine care.
This project builds on work by the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center to develop a maternal mortality reduction initiative. The development of the model will include listening sessions and will be informed by a community advisory group, with community engagement focused on Ansonia and Waterbury.
The United States has significantly higher rates of maternal mortality than similar countries, as well as severe racial disparities in outcomes. Nationally, Black women are more than three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women, and in Connecticut, Black women are twice as likely to experience life-threatening complications related to pregnancy.
“There has been a tremendous focus on health disparities in maternal mortality in Connecticut and nationwide. It’s time to take action,” said Patrick Charmel, president and CEO of Griffin Hospital and its parent organization, Griffin Health. “In developing this model, we are taking a comprehensive view of the underlying causes of maternal complications and the steps that can be taken to reduce or eliminate complications. Our goal is to ensure that all women who are pregnant or postpartum get the right care and support at the right time following a model of evidence-based interventions that can be incorporated into routine practice, especially for underserved socially vulnerable populations.”
The Connecticut Health Foundation has been investing in efforts to develop and test new ways to deliver maternal health care, including a grant to Hartford Hospital in 2024 to work with community-based doulas to rewrite hospital policies and train hospital staff to make doulas an integral part of patients’ care teams.
Next month, the foundation will publish a blueprint for maternal health equity in Connecticut, which will guide future grantmaking and policy efforts.
“We appreciate Griffin Hospital’s commitment to advancing maternal health equity by working with community members to find ways to improve care in ways that are effective, research-based, and sustainable,” said Tiffany Donelson, president and CEO of the Connecticut Health Foundation. “Most maternal deaths and severe complications are preventable. It will take all of us working together to ensure that everyone in our state can have a healthy pregnancy, birth, and start to parenthood, and we look forward to working with those committed to achieving this goal.”
Other Grants: