In My Mother's House

Featuring Sheila Simms Watson "The Miami Midwife"

So grab a cup of tea and join me "In My Mother's House" - our village blog, where we dialog about current issues related to midwives, mothers, babies & birth..........

Midwives of Color Report - New Community Midwifery Fund Supports Quality Care for Low-Income Mothers and Babies

Jannice Almansur - Sunday, May 13, 2012

by Sheila Simms Watson

New Community Midwifery Fund Supports Quality Care for Low-Income Mothers and Babies

New Community Midwifery Fund Supports Quality Care for Low-Income Mothers and Babies

“Midwives deliver – and not only babies. They save lives and promote good health in societies as a whole. They are an essential workforce in an effective healthcare system.”
- United Nations Population Fund Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin

For more information contact: Alexandra DelValle, 347-689-3221

Oakland, CA - April 16, 2012 – Groundswell Fund is pleased to announce the first grant awards from its newest grantmaking endeavor, the Community Midwifery Fund (CMF), a funding collaborative that is now welcoming new donor partners.

The U.S. consistently lags behind other industrialized democracies in infant and maternal mortality rates. Thirty-three countries outpace the U.S. in preventing infant mortality, and fifty have done a better job of preventing maternal mortality. In fact, while birth outcomes in most countries are steadily improving, they are getting worse in the U.S., due in part to increasing racial disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes. African American women, for example, suffer maternal mortality rates nearly four times those of white women, and their babies are two to three times more likely to die – a gap that exists regardless of socio-economic status.

Women of color are also disproportionately impacted by the high c-section rate in the U.S., which leapt from 4.5 percent of all births in 1965 to 33 percent of all births today, in sharp contrast to the World Health Organization’s recommendation that c-section rates not exceed 10 percent. High c-section rates contribute to increased rates of premature birth, low birth weight infants and rising healthcare costs (birth-related hospital costs totaled $98 billion in 2010).

Midwifery and doula care are changing these outcomes across the U.S., providing low cost, high quality care where it might not otherwise exist. Studies consistently show that midwifery care reduces hospital interventions like c-sections, and lowers infant and maternal mortality rates among vulnerable populations.

Yet, while many industrialized countries now make midwifery care widely available, these vital services are extremely limited in the U.S., and there are very few philanthropic dollars moving to this field.

The Community Midwifery Fund was created to make high quality, culturally competent midwifery care more readily available, especially for low-income women and women of color. Its goal is to improve birth outcomes for mothers and babies and address racial disparities in maternal and infant health. In its first round of grantmaking, the CMF awarded a total of $92,500 to eight projects that:

Increase the number of midwives of color entering the profession;
Expand affordable, community-based midwifery care, including sliding-scale birth centers and homebirth practices;
Increase doula training programs for women of color and girls, and community-based apprenticeship opportunities for women of color midwives; and
Reclaim and support traditional birth practices within different cultures.

According to Vanessa Daniel, Executive Director of Groundswell Fund, “Community-based midwifery and doula training and care are lowering maternal mortality, infant mortality and cesarean rates for women in low- income communities and communities of color across the U.S. The Community Midwifery Fund helps to ensure that midwife and doula care is available to every woman who wants it, no matter what her race or economic status.”

CMF grantees include a Florida midwifery program that has succeeded in reducing low-birth weights and pre-term births among low-income African American women and Latinas and the International Center for Traditional Childbearing, a midwifery training program that successfully persuaded the Oregon Health Authority to research the viability of public insurance coverage for doula care to improve birth outcomes for women of color and low-income women

As Jennie Joseph, founder and Executive Director of CMF grantee Common Sense Childbirth of Winter Garden, FL, explains, "We started with the fundamental premise that every woman wants a healthy baby and every woman deserves one.” Joseph, who is also a midwife, says that her organization has discovered that “when a woman sees that you firmly believe that, she too is motivated to do the best she can for herself and her baby."

“Projects like this one demonstrate the power and effectiveness of midwifery care,” notes Daniel. “We invite funder and donor partners to join Groundswell in increasing support for community midwifery projects that have the power and potential to transform health outcomes for women, children, and communities.”

Community Midwifery Fund 2011 Grantees

International Center for Traditional Childbearing, Portland, OR, $15,000
Earth Mama Healing Inc. – Wise Queen Dream Institute, Sacramento, CA, $10,000
SistahCare, Portland, OR, $10,000
Sacred Grove, Oakland, CA , $7,500
Wisdom Spring, Inc., Sacramento, CA, $5,000
Sacred Birth Place, Oakland, CA, $15,000
Española Valley Women’s Health, Española, NM, $15,000
Common Sense Childbirth, Inc., Winter Garden, FL, $15,000

For more information on the Community Midwifery Fund, please visitwww.groundswellfund.org.

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Update From US Breastfeeding Committee: W.K. Kellogg Foundation Awards Grant to U.S. Breastfeeding Committee

Jannice Almansur - Friday, May 11, 2012

Reprinted from U.S. Breastfeeding Committee Sat, April 05 supporters News Blast...To View the full online article use this link W.K. Kellogg Foundation Awards Grant to U.S. Breastfeeding Committee

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Megan Renner, 202.367.1132, mrenner@usbreastfeeding.org

W.K. Kellogg Foundation Awards Grant to U.S. BreastfeSeding Committee to Build National and State Coalitions to Implement Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change

View web version of this release

Washington, DC—The United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) is pleased to announce receipt of a $694,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The three-year award will fund a two-part initiative to build and sustain national and state coalitions to generate collective action to implement policy, systems, and environmental changes needed to increase breastfeeding rates and eliminate disparities.

"With 75% of mothers initiating breastfeeding, we know that most mothers want to breastfeed, but they encounter several barriers along the way that make it difficult to reach their personal breastfeeding goals," said USBC Chair Jeanne Blankenship. "As the national focus on breastfeeding continues to grow, we applaud the commitment of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to building the infrastructure to support the cross-sector collaboration necessary to tackle the complexity of this issue."

The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding, released in January 2011, identifies the USBC and its affiliated state coalitions as the primary partners in the implementation of its 20 recommended actions, along with the federal interagency work group on breastfeeding. Therefore, Part 1 of the grant initiative will focus on support for state breastfeeding coalitions, beginning with a comprehensive assessment to inform the design of customized technical assistance and enhanced training and networking opportunities for coalition leaders.

On the national level, Part 2 of the initiative will apply the "Collective Impact" model with a specific focus on increasing access to and continuity of skilled support for breastfeeding between hospitals and community health settings. Collective Impact Initiatives, as defined by John Kania & Mark Kramer in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, are "…long-term commitments by a group of important actors from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem. Their actions are supported by a shared measurement system, mutually reinforcing activities, and ongoing communication, and are staffed by an independent backbone organization."

Upon discharge from the hospital, many new mothers are unable to find or access skilled breastfeeding support. Hospitals, health care providers, and community organizations often lack systems to connect mothers to this skilled support. To address this gap, Action 8 of the Call to Action calls for the development of "systems to guarantee continuity of skilled support." The responsibility for building such systems is shared between hospitals, providers, and community organizations, making collaboration an imperative. As the national, multi-sectoral breastfeeding coalition, the USBC is uniquely qualified to lead this collective approach to systemic change to "help make breastfeeding easier," in the words of U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin.

According to Blankenship, "the Call to Action truly paints the landscape of breastfeeding support in the United States, demonstrating a society-wide approach to removing the barriers to breastfeeding success. The USBC looks forward to working with members and partners, public and private, at the national, state, and community levels, so that mothers throughout the country receive the care and support they need and deserve."

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, established in 1930, supports children, families and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and southern Africa. For further information on the foundation, please visit www.wkkf.org.

USBC is an organization of organizations. Opinions expressed by USBC are not necessarily the position of all member organizations and opinions expressed by USBC member organization representatives are not necessarily the position of USBC.

The United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) is an independent nonprofit coalition of more than 40 nationally influential professional, educational, and governmental organizations. Representing over one million concerned professionals and the families they serve, USBC and its member organizations share a common mission to improve the Nation's health by working collaboratively to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. For more information about USBC, visit www.usbreastfeeding.org.

United States Breastfeeding Committee: Advancing breastfeeding on our Nation's agenda.

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Advocacy

United States Breastfeeding Committee
2025 M Street, NW, Suite 800 ♦ Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202/367-1132 ♦ Fax: 202/367-2132
E-mail: office@usbreastfeeding.org

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Dear Sheila

Shafik Mansur - Tuesday, January 11, 2011

by Sheila Simms Watson

Sheila,

You are the great Mother of all Mothers

Like the Moon, like the Sea

Offering Light, offering salt

Through the dark of awareness

As we find our way into mothering

To become mothers

And the Woman I am meant to be

Thank you

For your strength as I find my strenght

For who you are spills out into my

Family

Our Children

Forever

You are truly dear, Sheila

Wendy

January 1, 2008

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Breastfeeding Benefits Boys' Brains

Shafik Mansur - Monday, December 20, 2010

by Sheila Simms Watson

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen on a new study showing breast-fed children score considerably higher academically at age 10.

	Breastfeeding Benefits Boys' Brains
	By Kristina Fiore, Staff Writer, MedPage Today December 20, 2010
	Review Breastfeeding for at least six months has been associated with enhanced immunity and other benefits for children -- but a prospective study from Australia suggests breastfeeding may also yield academic benefits later in a child's life, at least for boys. The study, which followed almost 3,000 children from birth onward, found those who were predominantly breastfed for six months or longer had significantly higher scores on standardized tests of reading, math, and spelling at age 10 compared with kids breastfed for shorter periods, according to Wendy Oddy, PhD, of Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in Perth in Western Australia, and colleagues. However, the effects on those test scores appeared to be much stronger for boys than for girls, Oddy and co-authors reported online in Pediatrics. "Our study adds to growing evidence that breastfeeding for at least six months has beneficial effects on optimal child development," they wrote. While breastfeeding is promoted as beneficial to both the mother and newborn -- and exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months is widely recommended -- the benefits of breastfeeding on cognitive development have not been clear, according to background provided by the authors. For example, the researchers asked, would benefits breastfeeding reflect nutritional or socioeconomic advantages? Some studies have shown no benefits in terms of academic achievement after adjusting for socioeconomic status, environment, and maternal verbal ability, while benefits are apparent in others. To examine the relationship between duration of breastfeeding and educational outcomes, the researchers assessed data from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort, which included 2,900 women who were enrolled at 18 weeks gestation. A total of 2,868 infants were then followed prospectively. The researchers matched these data with standardized test scores in mathematics, reading, writing, and spelling for 1,038 of these children. Overall, the researchers found that children who were breastfed for at least six months had higher academic scores than those who weren't breastfed that long. Children of mothers who were merely continuing to breastfeed at six months had significantly better scores, which increased with each additional month of breastfeeding for math (P=0.01), reading (P<0.001), writing (P=0.004), and spelling (P=0.005). But these results were attenuated when adjusted for confounding factors including maternal and demographic factors. With each additional month of breastfeeding, the scores still increased, but did not reach significance, the researchers said. However, children of mothers who were predominantly breastfed at six months had significantly improved academic scores in multivariable models for reading, math, and spelling. Those findings approached significance for writing, the researchers said. The relationship may be explained by the fact that nutrients in breast milk -- especially long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids -- are essential for optimum brain growth, including cell membranes and neurons. When looking at other factors, the researchers found that lower maternal education and family income were significantly associated with decreased child academic achievement. Conversely, reading and looking at books with the child between ages 3 and 5 were associated with improved mean scores for reading and writing, particularly for girls. This gender difference also held true for the big picture. When analyzing the cohort by gender, predominant breastfeeding at six months was significantly associated wtih increased mathematics, reading, writing, and spelling scores for boys -- but there was no effect on educational attainment for girls in any subject. The researchers said this could be due to the fact that male children are known to be more vulnerable to adversity during critical periods, which may be related to the neuroprotective effect of estradiols. These are typically at higher concentrations in female children. Thus, any neuroprotective role of breast milk would have greater benefits for male children, they explained. Another possibility is that breastfeeding has a positive effect on the mother-child relationship, facilitating bonding, interaction, and, indirectly, cognitive growth. Studies have shown that male infants are more reliant than females on maternal attentnion, so the positive effects of this bond may be stronger in males. One limitation of the study was that it could not control for maternal intelligence. There was also a lack of information on children who attended non-government schools, and no data on academic achievement at other time points. The study was also conducted only among mothers and children in Australia, which may limit its generalizability to other locations. The Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort Study is funded by grants from Raine Medical Research Foundation, the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation, and the Australian Rotary Health Fund. Co-authors were supported by a Curtin University fellowship and the Australian Research Council. The researchers reported no conflicts of interest. Primary source: Pediatrics Source reference: Oddy WH, et al "Breastfeeding duration and academic achievement at 10 years"Pediatr 2010; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2009-3489.
	© 2004-2010 MedPage Today, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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In My Mother's House

Midwives of Color Report - New Community Midwifery Fund Supports Quality Care for Low-Income Mothers and Babies

New Community Midwifery Fund Supports Quality Care for Low-Income Mothers and Babies

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Update From US Breastfeeding Committee: W.K. Kellogg Foundation Awards Grant to U.S. Breastfeeding Committee

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Dear Sheila

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Breastfeeding Benefits Boys' Brains

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In My Mother's House

Midwives of Color Report - New Community Midwifery Fund Supports Quality Care for Low-Income Mothers and Babies

New Community Midwifery Fund Supports Quality Care for Low-Income Mothers and Babies

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Update From US Breastfeeding Committee: W.K. Kellogg Foundation Awards Grant to U.S. Breastfeeding Committee

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Dear Sheila

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Breastfeeding Benefits Boys' Brains

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Latest Posts

Spirit of Life Community

Spirit of Life Traditional Midwifery

Blogroll

Traditional Midwifery Associations

Traditional Midwifery Advocacy and Educational Resources

La Leche League International - Breastfeeding

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