The Healthy Baby Network is celebrating 30 years serving the Rochester region.
The pregnancy care organization works to provide resources for birthing parents and families affected by inequitable access to healthcare.
The CDC estimates 80 percent of the maternal deaths due to pregnancy-related complications are preventable and Black women are three times more likely to die.
Sharita Bullock is the president and CEO of Healthy Baby Network. She says the organization's focus now is on the next 30 years to improve birthing outcomes for both parents and babies.
"We can't keep doing what we have been doing," Bullock said. "What we have been doing has gotten us to where we are, and when we agree that it's not acceptable for us to have preventable deaths, then we need to bring like all of our best thinking together."
A major focus has been the transition from its start as a systems integration organization to providing direct services to families. Bullock says partner organizations have been key in making sure parents are healthy so that babies can be born and live healthy lives.
"As parent and infant health has evolved and the challenges that parents are facing have evolved, it's required us as an organization to also evolve while we maintain those things that are super great about how we work and how we work together, as well as prepare and rise and meet the challenges and circumstances that we know our parents are navigating," she said.
Among the organization's most successful initiatives, Bullock includes the NEST program which centers on raising families out of poverty. It provides pregnancy education, preparation, and a $1,000 monthly incentive for parents to consistently meet with their case workers.
She also highlighted the Fatherhood Program and Reentry Program to engage fathers in the pregnancy process.
"Partnering with those dads to also set goals for themselves, assisting and supporting them in their achievement of their goals, helping them to reengage and reconnect with their families, including their children," Bullock explains.
"[We are] working on their ability to be teachers of their children in finances and in legacy. Starting very early, so that those children grow up with an understanding, a pathway, and a resource in their fathers in planning their lives and and what a legacy looks like."
Bullock says across the Rochester region, pregnancy outcomes are impacted by the national economic downturn, the area's aging housing stock, and a lack of access to affordable housing. This is where she says the partnerships with other organizations become crucial.
"We know that when parents are healthy and are on a healthy track across their lives, the children are healthier. Moms and dads can come together — when it's safe for them to do so — and focus on the health and development of their children. Their children are healthier when they have the opportunity to connect with other parents around the things that they're going through," she said.
There will be a gala for celebration and reflection at the Hyatt downtown on Friday, November 6 at 5:30 p.m.
