Partnering with Communities to Enhance Health Before, During, and After Pregnancy
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
In the United States, people who are Black/ African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, or Hispanic/Latina, as well as people living in rural areas, experience higher rates of maternal morbidity and mortality. The Maternal Health Community Implementation Program (MH-CIP) supports community-engaged implementation research, working with affected communities to improve heart, lung, blood, and sleep health before, during, and after delivery.
MH-CIP aligns with the CEAL mission by emphasizing community engagement in all aspects of research promoting health equity. MH-CIP develops and tests community-based implementation strategies to increase the adoption, uptake, and scaling up of evidence-based interventions to improve health before, during, and after pregnancy. The program supports research coalitions that are firmly connected to and embedded in affected communities.
MH-CIP Goals
- Use implementation science to bring effective maternal health interventions into communities severely impacted by maternal health disparities.
- Empower disproportionately impacted communities across the U.S. to be full partners in community-engaged implementation research to reduce disparities in maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity.
- Identify and disseminate effective implementation strategies that harness community strengths and knowledge to address facilitators or barriers affecting the adoption of evidence-based practices or interventions to improve maternal health.
- Strengthen partnerships between researchers and community-based organizations to support the translation of research into usable tools and knowledge.
Research Coalitions
MH-CIP supports four coalitions comprised of research organizations and community partners. Research coalitions are using Hybrid Type 2 or Type 3 Effectiveness-Implementation study designs to examine the effectiveness and implementation of evidence-based interventions. Community partners co-lead these efforts, ensuring that local knowledge, values, priorities, and strengths are fully considered and incorporated into the research.
| Coalition | Morehouse School of Medicine | New York University Langone Health | Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine | Center for Women’s Health Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Study | IMPACT (Improving Preconception Actions and Choices for Tomorrow) | RESTORE (bRidging maternal lifestyle Education and counSeling with CommuniTy health wORkers and health Equity) | STRIVE (Strategies for Implementing a Postpartum Lifestyle Intervention in WIC Clinics: A Cluster Randomized Trial) | AC3HIEVE (Advancing Community and Clinical Care for Childbirth-related Hypertension through Implementation, Engagement, and Valuing Equity |
| Intervention | Prepregnancy counseling based on recommendations from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology | Just Mothers, a Web application used to deliver the Starting Early Program (StEP), a supportive nutrition and lifestyle counseling program for pregnant women | Type 2 diabetes prevention program at 36 WIC sites | Community-informed training, facilitation, and simulations to support the implementation of the Outpatient Severe Hypertension (O-HTN) Safety Bundle |
| Location | Healthy Start, and similar, clinics in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee | Family Health Centers at NYU Langone and NYC Health + Hospitals | WIC clinics in Louisiana | Outpatient clinics in North Carolina |
| Academic Leads | Natalie Hernandez, Ph.D., M.P.H. (Principal Investigator); Latrice Rollins, Ph.D., M.S.W.; Cheryl Franklin, M.D., M.P.H., FACOG; Amy Huebschmann, M.D., M.Sc., FACP (Implementation Science Subject Matter Expert); Meredith Fort, Ph.D. (Implementation Science Subject Matter Expert) | Natasha Williams, EdD, MPH, MSW (Principal Investigator) Gbenga Ogedegbe, MD, MPH, FACP; Mary A. Sevick, ScD; Mary Messito, MD (MultiPrincipal Investigators) | Kirsten S. Dorans, Sc.D. and Jiang He, M.D., Ph.D. (Multi-Principal Investigator); Flor Alvarado, M.D., M.H.S.; Alessandra Bazzano, Ph.D., M.P.H.; Hua He, Ph.D.; Leanne Redman, Ph.D., M.S.; Sarah Schrauben, M.D., M.S.C.E.; Lizheng Shi, Ph.D., M.S.Pharm. | Kathryn Menard, M.D., M.P.H. (Principal Investigator); Jennifer Leeman, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., M.Div. (Implementation Science Lead); Narges Farahi, M.D. (Clinical Integration Lead); Alexandra Lightfoot, Ed.D. (Community Engagement Lead); Sarahn Wheeler, M.D., M.H.Sc. (Health Equity Lead) |
| Community Leads | Danette McLaurin Glass | Laura Ibanez Gomez, Co-investigator, Family Health Centers at NYU Langone Health; and Helena A. Grant, President, New York State Midwives | Courtney R. Martin, B.S., CLC; Celia Bridgforth, Ph.D., R.D.N., L.D.N. (community partner); Mary E. Schultheis, L.P.N. (Multi-Principal Investigator) | Kamara Barnett (Lead Patient Representative); Jen Medearis Costello, M.S. |
MH-CIP is supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the Office of Research on Women’s Health.
Last updated: November 12, 2024