Cutting-Edge Practice

Grassroots Maternal and Child Health Initiative: Faith-based MCH Promotion

State/Jurisdiction: Indiana
Setting: Community
Population: Infant Women & Maternal
Topic Area: Safe and Connected Communities Health Promotion & Communication Birth Outcomes
NPMs:

The Grassroots Maternal and Child Health Initiative: Faith-based MCH Promotion focuses efforts to promote positive birth outcomes in community through faith-based organizations because sustaining and making further improvements in birth outcomes requires the activation of community members and organizations to help address the inequitable social, economic, cultural, and environmental factors that lead to adverse birth outcomes (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion 2021). Faith-based organizations are trusted institutions often within marginalized and underrepresented communities, making these organizations great partners to reach and support the most vulnerable populations in our society.


Our capacity building efforts with faith-based organizations are grounded in the National Cancer Institute’s Body and Soul Program which successfully partnered with African American churches to drive dietary change in African American congregations/communities (National Cancer Institute 2020). We modified this programs pillars of success to be the following: Developing Positive MCH Communication Strategies, Develop Life Span MCH Programming, Equip and Strengthen MCH Infrastructure, Honor MCH Stories, and Build Local MCH Resource Networks. Through these community led partnerships, faith-based organizations are able to take a sustainable approach towards assisting in the efforts of creating connected, healthy, and safe communities where pregnant people and families are supported by community and are able to lean on a trusted source to gain accessibility to the necessary resources to promote positive birth outcomes for birthing people and infants.


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Implementation Handout



CONTACT INFORMATION
Grassroots Maternal and Child Health Initiative, Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine
Whitley Wynns
wwynns@iu.edu

Practice Website