As part of SELCA’s previous commitment to highlighting the challenges and achievements of IBCLCs, Lactation supporters, and families of color year-round, and intersecting with National Minority Health Month (April, in the United States), we want to amplify to work of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance.
SELCA centers black voices and efforts during Black Maternal Health Week; In addition to the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, look to Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere (ROSE), National Association of Professional and Peer Lactation Supporters of Color (NAPPLSC), Cocoa Mamas Breastfeeding Group, and Momma’s Village-Fayetteville (NC) for ways to support the important work being done to address modern health inequities.
Yesterday marked the close of Black Maternal Health Week 2019. If you aren’t familiar with #BMHW19, check out its origin, history and purpose here. Discrepancies in healthcare deserve our focus- too many black moms are dying in childbirth, and we need to figure out a solution (see one effort here) and stop placing blame on those impacted.
In celebration of #BMHW19, SELCA attended a recent Sankofa Cultural Breastfeeding Coalition meeting focusing on Black Maternal Health, hosted by Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere (ROSE).
After the meeting, Rose Horton, MSM, RNC, DeKalb Medical’s executive director of women and infant services, sat down with us to share her passion, and we wanted to highlight her efforts.
Ms. Horton has collaborated with Sankofa previously in 4th Trimester Project efforts, recognizing that 66% of maternal mortality occurs in the period of 42 days to 1 year after birth. She wants to strengthen connections with community resources, because as a hospital administrator, that time period is beyond her reach. However, Ms. Horton has started a powerful movement- #NotOnMyWatch- to concentrate on what is within her reach in the immediate period surrounding birth.
#NotOnMyWatch is more than a catchy phrase and cool hashtag. To Ms. Horton, it was a commitment- a line she drew in the sand. She wants her current legacy to be embracing a health equity lens and listening to the consumer. Avoid assumptions, she cautions.
Rose Horton has garnered news attention for her work (see her speak, here), but she is quick to say it isn’t her work alone. While Ms. Horton declares #NotOnMyWatch, and does everything she can to mitigate maternal morbidity and mortality within her locus of control, she also fosters an empowering environment. She encourages every nurse, every tech, every allied health worker, on every shift to make the same commitment. Take personal responsibility that today, black women won’t die- #NotOnMyWatch!