Addressing Racial Disparities in Maternal and Infant Health Outcomes
held Tuesday, January 21, 2025, 9:30 am
Our January general member meeting was held in collaboration with the AAUW Orinda-Moraga-Lafayette (OML) Branch. It was a well-attended meeting, with about 75 people, (roughly split one-third DAW, two-thirds OML) in attendance. The presenters were Natalie Berbick and Adiam Mengis from Contra Costa Health, and Christina Oldini from the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC) at Stanford. Ms. Berbick and Ms. Mengis began the program by describing Contra Costa Health’s Family, Maternal, and Child Health programs and their overall goals. One of the programs is the Perinatal Equity Initiative (PEI,) which is a statewide California program started in 2018 under then Governor Jerry Brown. The Perinatal Equity Initiative is intended to address the causes of persistent poor birth outcomes and to identify best practices to improve disparities in infant mortality. The disparities are significant: the Black infant mortality rate is 2-4 times higher than the rates for other ethnic groups statewide. Also, Black mothers are 3-4 times more likely to experience maternal complications and mortality.
Ms. Oldini described the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative, which was founded in 2006 at Stanford Medicine together with the State of California, in response to rising maternal mortality and morbidity rates. One of the things that CMQCC does is collect and provide data to 281 collaborating hospitals in Washington, Oregon and California. Their overall mission is to eliminate preventable morbidity, mortality, and racial disparities in maternity care across California. Ms. Oldini also shared the significant disparities in outcomes for black women.
We learned what actions Contra Costa Health and CMQCC are taking to improve outcomes overall. To view the presentation slides, which include links to resources if you’d like to learn more, click here.
About our speakers –
Natalie Berbick, MSW (she/her), is an experienced advocate for health equity and social justice in the maternal and child health arena. She is Family, Maternal, and Child Health Director at Contra Costa Health. As a graduate of UC Berkeley and the University of Michigan School of Social Work, her calling has been to support the health and safety of children and families throughout her twenty-year career by addressing health disparities and disenfranchised populations through prevention and intervention services. She launched and led the Contra Costa Perinatal Equity Initiative in 2018.
Adiam Mengis, MPH, LLB, (she/her), is both a Public Health Program Specialist for the Perinatal Equity Initiative and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome & Comprehensive Perinatal Services Coordinator at Contra Costa Health. Her broad public health background includes having worked in Seattle as Educator Consultant with the King County Department of Public Health, and as HIV/AIDS Outreach and Early Intervention Services Manager with the Center for Multicultural Health. She holds an MPH from Touro University California and an LLB from the University of Asmara, Eritrea.
Christina M. Oldini, RN, MBA, CPHQ (she/her), is Associate Director with the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC), and a proud nurse with extensive direct patient care nursing experience. Ms. Oldini has led initiatives focused on substance abuse and exposure for pregnant people and newborns, as well as perinatal equity. She holds MBA and BSN degrees from the University of San Francisco.
To learn more about the Perinatal Equity Initiative in Contra Costa, click here.
To learn more about the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative, click here.