We aim to make birth safer for Black and Brown families in Central Texas.

Vision

Our vision is for Black and Brown communities to enter a new world where birth is a safe, healthy, and joyful experience for all.

Values

• Birth Worker Sustainability 

• Power Building and Organizing 

• Holistic Care 

• Thriving Communities

About

The Maternal Health Equity Collaborative centers Black women and women of color- both in leading the collaborative and within the community we serve. The approach to service provision is not prescriptive or based on hypothetical needs but based in the actual needs of the community from a space of solidarity. The MHEC is building community through humanization, healing, and creating a legacy for generations to come.

The MHEC was forged out of necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure Black birthing people have access to equitable perinatal care. The group began as a place to build power and advocate for Doulas and Birthworkers to remain in the hospitals. After solidifying Doulas as members of the healthcare team with local hospitals, MHEC then conducted an internal needs assessment using human-centered design to analyze current services and understand the gaps in care for perinatal folks in the region, and with Measure’s support, we conducted a BIPOC lived experience survey to gain further input on community need. From this, the Perinatal Childcare Program for Black Families and other efforts of Reproductive Justice were derived.

Over the past five years the MHEC has had numerous successes in our work to amplify our four pillars: Birthworker Sustainability, Power Building and Organizing, Holistic Care and Thriving Communities. Some of the most meaningful wins include:

• Publishing the Spirit of Possibilities Report

• Receiving the Safer Childbirth Cities grant to begin the Perinatal Childcare for Black Families project in April 2021

• Holding twice yearly Community Baby showers, providing basic needs items and resources to over 200 families per event

• Organizing and hosting a Rally to demand the release the delayed 2021 Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee report

• Implementing a Respite and appointment-based childcare program beginning October 2021 that has served over 76 families with 2,900 hours of culturally competent support. 

• Adding On-call childcare for emergency hospitalizations and mental health complications in 2022.

• Supporting individual MHEC organizations through grants with HRSA Health Start, Boldly Blue doula workforce initiative, and value adding contract with a Medicaid MCO. 

• Creating a Gap fund to support organizations and individuals in need of financial support, such as covering parental leave, helping relocate after domestic violence situations, aiding in rent, support in access to home birth care, and providing wellness funds for members to care for themselves. Through this fund, MHEC has distributed over $25,000 to members and organizations.

Rooted in community and collaboration, the MHEC continues to make meaningful change in Central Texas. Through individual services offered through each organization, as well as through the partnership that created the Childcare Program for Black families, MHEC is changing the perinatal landscape in Texas by offering accessible prenatal, birth, and postpartum care and creating a pocket of safety for the hundreds of families served by each member organization. It is well documented that it is dangerous to be Black and Brown and pregnant in Texas, and the MHEC is actively combating this through human-centered and community-informed care. Each individual organization is life-saving, and the community fostered by the collaborative MHEC only makes this more powerful and far-reaching.