Paid Family Leave Is a Game Changer for New Parents' Health, Not Just Their Economic Security

To help mothers who aren't able to supply their newborn with an adequate supply of breast milk, a hospital in Kenya has developed a milk bank. At the breast milk bank, new mothers can donate a portion of their supply of milk that is supplied to preterm babies whose mothers have "died or were not present, full-term babies who are sickly and those whose mothers are unable to breastfeed, due to lack of breast milk."

Providing door-to-door health care for mothers and children under five years of age greatly reduces mortality. Thanks to a program of home visits by community health care workers funded by the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the Yirimadio neighborhood of Mali’s capital city, Bamako, has succeeded in dramatically reducing childhood mortality. The government intends to scale the pilot program into a nationwide campaign by 2022.

To better serve women of color during pregnancies and childbirth, women in Philadelphia have started offering workshops to teach about and advocate for increased understanding around the birthing experience. With statistics indicating that black women are more likely to experience complications during their pregnancies, these workshops address in a gap in care for "black women’s desires for alternative, and better, birth and postpartum experiences."

Two regions within Kenya, Mandera and Isiolo, have made significant strides in reducing their rate of maternal mortality cases. Both counties employed similar tactics, such as improving facility quality, increasing the number of healthcare workers, and training local community volunteers to advocate for ante-natal care. Among other metrics, Mandera now records 588 deaths per 100,000 live births (down from 3,795), and Isiolo now has 57 facilities (up from 47) to make healthcare more accessible.

The Nigerian state of Oyo has a modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (mCPR) of 24%, which is the highest in the country compared to the national average of 10.8%. This can be attributed to family planning services brought to citizens through a fruitful partnership between government efforts and outside partners like nonprofit Marie Stopes International Organization of Nigeria (MSION). Since 2013 MSION has helped bring an influx of new family planning information and media outreach, improve clinic facilities and services, offer counseling for pre- and postnatal care, and much more.

Medical professionals travel to remote areas of Nigeria with little access to family planning or maternal health care to hand out resources such as condoms or birth control and to train villages' Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) on updated safe birth practices. The team, called the PeachAid Medical Initiative, has reached over 30,000 women and 400 TBAs through medical outreach to rural communities since 2015. The work at large is meant to address the high maternal death rate in Nigeria.

Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) Centers in Los Angeles are holding breastfeeding support groups targeted specifically for black mothers. Since its inception 3 years, it has encouraged and assisted more than 500 moms acclimate to breastfeeding. Similar models are now popping up all over the country as well.

The Global Infant Safe Sleep Center is tackling the sobering statistic that black babies are twice as likely to die before their first birthday than white babies are in the United States. The Center focuses on educating men on a simple tactic against infant mortality by teaching them how to safely put a baby to bed. Through a partnership with black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi, thousands of men across the country are getting trained and passing their knowledge on to other men.

More women are being incarcerated around the United States and that has spurred more institutions to create prison nurseries, which allow women to be with their newborns. It's not a new idea, but it's finding support among prison advocates as well as budget hawks because research shows nurseries can lower recidivism rates among mothers. The idea of children in prison remains controversial however.

At St. John Hospital in Detroit, the principles of cultural sensitivity and collaboration—as well as lots of fundraising—have boosted previously low breastfeeding rates by black mothers.