Perinatal Worker Perspectives on Workforce Development for Birth Equity in New Jersey

• In Event: Medical Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 18. Healthcare Providers & Practice II

Abstract

U.S. health care institutions, governmental agencies, and researchers have been unable to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates and racial disparities to acceptable levels. Federal and state governments, funding collaboratives, and data agencies have called for renewed attention to community engagement and qualitative research approaches. Institutional recognition is growing that the communities most affected must have a voice and a seat at the table, and that established health care, government and research institutions must be accountable to those communities in order to address as-yet unmet, or unacknowledged, needs.

New Jersey has undertaken an ambitious multi-sector effort to address catastrophic racial disparities in maternal health, particularly Black maternal health outcomes. Doulas, lactation counselors, community health workers and other professionals promote overall physical and mental health of birthing parents, infants and families, and facilitate family access to social services. Based on evidence that their involvement dramatically improves birth outcomes, government and public health advocates aim to recruit more perinatal workers from within the communities most in need of support, and to optimize their training, curricula, certification processes, and fair compensation. These efforts can be strengthened by integration of community-based perspectives on factors that encourage or discourage doulas to seek and secure training, employment, and Medicaid reimbursement.

This study investigates experiences of birth and maternal health care from the perspectives of current and aspiring members of the non-clinical perinatal workforce that government, funders and advocates seek to expand. Narratives collected through focus groups and interviews are invaluable sources of insight on the perspectives of perinatal workers on their experiences with birth, perinatal care, and their social and occupational environments, particularly as compared and contrasted with the views of those providing clinical care, workforce training, and ancillary governmental and social supports to birthing parents and families.

Authors

• Elizabeth B. Erbaugh, Stockton University

• Christina R. Jackson, Rutgers University