PROJECT DETROIT:
VOICES FOR LIFE

Pictured are Project Detroit: Voices for Life Partners including representatives from Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association, Focus Hope, Henry Ford Health, Detroit Health Department, and SEMPQIC.

Black mothers are dying at rates of 3-4 times that of white mothers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 80% of those deaths are preventable.  Black Women, like all women, want the right to a healthy, beautiful birth and live to enjoy the blessing of a new life!

The goal of Project Detroit:Voices For Life is to reduce maternal mortality using a 4-prong, multi-partner approach.

Utilizing existing successful maternal health structures and resources in Detroit, SEMPQIC assembled a collaboration of four community partners with deep roots and established trust in the community.  Our partners include the Detroit Health Department, Henry Ford Health, Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association, and Focus: HOPE. 

Click below to view Project Detroit: Voices for Life Accomplishments: 

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4 Prong-Approach with Community Partners

 

Maternal Mortality and Vitality Review Team

Community Partner
Detroit Health Department

Unconscious
Bias Training

Community Partner
Henry Ford Health

Doula
Training

Community Partner
Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association (BMBFA)

100 Voices
Storytelling

Community Partners
The Detroit Health Department
Sister Friends
Focus: HOPE
Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association (BMBFA)

Maternal Mortality and Vitality Review Team:

Detroit Health Department

The Detroit Health Department Maternal Mortality Vitality Review Team’s (MMVRT) goal and objective, set out to address the disproportionate number of African American women in Detroit that experience high-risk pregnancies and maternal deaths. We aim to better understand the clinical and social circumstances surrounding a woman who dies (up to one year) after giving birth.

Our Team is leading the city's first ever review to examine existing vitality data to understand how women who experienced similar adverse health or social conditions survived; to make recommendations that will not only explain Mortality but will assist us in a promoting vitality. Resulting in an enhanced proposals to influence policies, practices, and resource flows in Detroit and statewide. Our recommendations will seek to provide guidance to systems, individuals, and Public Health.

Contacts:
City of Detroit, Detroit Health Department – Public Health Programs: 313-876-0388

Unconscious Bias Training:

Henry Ford Health

Addressing unconscious bias is necessary for improving Black maternal and infant health disparities. Reducing Unconscious Bias, an Imperative (RUBI) is an unconscious bias and respectful care training curriculum developed and facilitated by the Henry Ford Health Office of Community Health, Equity, Wellness & Diversity and Henry Ford Women’s Health Services. Join RUBI for a deeper dive into bias, respectful care, and their impact on Black maternal health. 

Contacts:
Ally Rooker, MPH at arooker1@hfhs.org

Doula Training:

Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association (BMBFA)

A certified doula is a person who provides emotional and physical support to you during your pregnancy and childbirth. Doulas are not medical professionals. They don't deliver babies or provide medical care. A doula has taken a training program and passed an exam in how to help pregnant women and their families during this exciting but challenging experience.

Source: WebMD - What Is a Doula? (webmd.com)

Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association (BMBFA) provides Doula training and certification. They also provide Doula support.  You can contact BMBFA to register for training sessions or get more information.

100 Voices Storytelling:

The Detroit Health Department / Sister Friends
Focus: HOPE
Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association (BMBFA)

The Centers for Disease Control reports that Black and Brown women are dying at a rate of three to four times that of white women and 80% percent of those deaths are preventable!

Our 100 Voices Storytelling Partners, the Detroit Health Department / SisterFriends , Focus: HOPE, and Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association (BMBFA), are well established in doing birth work in the Greater Detroit area. They have strong community roots and successful programs that educate and support pregnant women and their families.

The 100 Voices Partners recognized that Black and Brown women are not feeling heard or respected. But, acknowledge that when birthing women’s voices are heard, they are empowered and they thrive!

To capture those voices, the 100 Voices Partners hired a professional storyteller and trained 110 women to tell their birth stories. The trainer held twenty-one 2-day/four-hour virtual training sessions that included the components of storytelling. Because the retelling of their birth stories was often re-traumatizing, the Partners held bi-weekly listening sessions with the women allowing the Partners to recognize and address emotional needs. 

Through the training, women learned that they are not alone, that their voices matter. They learned that there are organizations and services that will support them through their pregnancy and beyond. They learned that they have the right to be heard, to expect and receive the equitable and respectful care that they desire.

Of the 110 women trained, 16 Storytellers’ birth journeys were videotaped to be shared in professional and community settings. The major themes captured in these videos include:

  • Not being heard

  • Having a birthing plan but not being respected … not acknowledged

  • The benefits of having a Doula or Midwife

  • Isolation…not having contact

  • Mental Health and Postpartum depression

  • Not being supported

  • The use of Pitocin

  • Pressured to have a C-section

  • Premature Birth

  • Homelessness, unemployment … issues that affect women in their daily lives and not considered in their doctor visits

The 100 Voices Partners also invited twenty-one women from the community to form a Campaign Design Team to develop a media campaign. The Design Team recognized that when birthing women’s voices are heard, they are empowered, and they thrive! The media campaign, “Our Voices, Our Births: Hear Us! - Detroit Mothers Speak,” is designed to highlight the issue around excessively high Black and Brown maternal deaths and empower women to expect respectful, equitable care and advocate for change. The Hear Us! Campaign provides information to help mothers advocate for themselves and others to create the necessary change to improve maternal and infant health and advance equity and respectful care with their healthcare providers.

 

Our Voices, Our Births - Hear Us! Detroit Mothers Speak

Hear Us! Campaign

Our Voices, Our Births - Hear Us! : Detroit Mothers Speak Empowerment Campaign seeks to give birthing women the information and tools they need to expect and experience a safe, healthy and joyful pregnancy and delivery.  The Hear Us! Campaign helps mothers advocate for themselves and others to create the necessary change to improve maternal and infant health and advance equity and respectful care with their healthcare providers.

The Hear Us! Campaign includes: 

  • 20 Videos featuring local mothers sharing their birth stories.  Women hearing the stories of other mothers' birth journeys helps them know they are not alone and that they have choices. It helps women to know that they have a right to a respectful, joyful birth journey. 

  • A Users’ Tool Kit – “EMPOWERING YOUR VOICE – Things Black Women Need to Know To Improve Their Birth Experience” includes valuable information and resources to inform and support women before and during pregnancy, and after the baby is born.

  • 37 Storyteller Storyboards highlighting local mothers’ birth experiences captured on infographics that can be printed as handouts or posters to be used an educational tool.

Click the Hear Us! Campaign button to access the videos, the Empowering Your Voice Tool Kit, and the Storyboards.

Media

News Release and Interviews

Presentation
Michigan Public Health Institute Breakfast Club: Mapping as an Integral Part of Storytelling

Michigan Megacast Interview
“Hear Us!” Campaign

Fox 2 News Interview
with Reporter Liz Lewin

LIVE Radio In-Studio Interview
on Superstation 910 AM’s “Empowered” with Angela Moore