LOS ANGELES – L.A. Care Health Plan is proud to announce it has committed $900,000 for two projects working to address birth equity. The two projects that are benefitting from these grants are the L.A. County Medi-Cal Doula Hub and the African American Infant and Maternal Mortality Prevention Initiative (AAIMM).
“L.A. Care is committed to advancing health equity, and these grants will support healthcare infrastructure and innovations,” said John Baackes, L.A. Care CEO. “The funding ultimately will help to close pervasive health disparities gaps.”
In L.A. County, Black babies are two to three times more likely to die before their first birthday than White infants, and Black women in the county are four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than White women.
L.A. Care is committing $750,000 over three years to increase birth equity in partnership with L.A. County’s Medi-Cal Doula Hub. The funding will help build and equip the doula workforce to enable Medi-Cal Plans to provide doula services for Medi-Cal members. Doula services are a benefit under the CalAIM initiative. Doulas provide emotional, physical and educational support to a person who is expecting, experiencing labor, or has recently given birth. This year, the health plan will release the first of three awards of $250,000 to support the Doula Hub.
“This important grant will support the Doula Hub in positioning the community doula workforce to powerfully center and prioritize birthing families most at risk of adverse birth outcomes,” said Sayida Peprah-Wilson, PsyD, Founder & Executive Director, Diversity Uplifts, Inc, the Doula Hub operator. “The funding will also bring forth birth justice to families who reside in the culturally diverse neighborhoods of L.A. County.”
L.A. Care is also committing $150,000 to strengthen the infrastructure of the African American Infant and Maternal Mortality Prevention Initiative (AAIMM), which was launched in 2018. AAIMM is a coalition of the L.A. County Department of Public Health in partnership with other departments and community-based organizations united in an effort to address unacceptably high rates of Black infant and maternal deaths. L.A. Care funding will help expand the AAIMM steering committee and will increase engagement of external stakeholders.
Both the Doula Hub and the AAIMM Prevention Initiative are efforts of the L.A. County Department of Public Health (DPH). The LA Partnership for Early Childhood Investment is helping DPH manage the projects. These investments strengthen L.A. Care’s partnership with local health jurisdictions to mitigate disparities and advance health equity, which means everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as health as possible.