Providing Education Through Advocacy & Learning Strategies: Empowering African-American women from preconception through postpartum care

Statistics have shown that regardless of socio-economic indicators, Black infants are two times more likely to die in the first year of life than their White counterparts. With funding support from the New Jersey Department of Health & Senior Services, the Black Infant Mortality Reduction Resource Center of the Northern New Jersey Maternal/Child Health Consortium developed a new initiative PETALS, “Providing Education Through Advocacy & Learning Strategies.” The PETALS program was created to inform African American women of all social and economic backgrounds about the importance of improving birth outcomes.

A multi-faceted strategy was established to reach women of African descent through: the creation of the PETALS website, an online comprehensive directory of regional health and social services and presentations to various professional and civic organizations. Cultural competency trainings were hosted for clinicians that focused on racial and ethnic disparities in perinatal health. In addition, four thousand (4,000) culturally-appropriate educational packets were developed and will be disseminated throughout hospitals, federally-qualified health centers, and community-based health organizations. Preconception/interconception, prenatal, and postpartum periods are covered within the packets. Each packet also includes a survey tool that will determine the utility of the packet and measure any increase in patient/client knowledge.

Overall, the PETALS program has reached over 3500 women and has the capacity to reach 7500 women of child-bearing age. This approach has been very effective in raising awareness about peculiar findings related to infant mortality prevention among African Americans, and the need to further understand why racial/ethnic disparities persist.