Lynette Lartey, MPH, MCHES®, Health Services and Outcomes Research, received a $2,298 Healthy Blue Birth Equity Mini-Grant from Kansas Birth Equity Network (KBEN). The grant is for her project “Cultural Brokerage in Pregnancy-related Options Counseling in the Midwest” and covers a project period of April 1, 2024-August 31, 2025.
Drawing on surveys and interviews with doulas and community health workers (CHWs), the study aims to explore the facilitators and barriers that these two types of birth workers face working in Kansas when providing pregnancy-related options counseling to pregnant clients, especially Black and Brown clients experiencing high-risk pregnancies.
Lynette and her team survey doulas and CHWs from local community-based organizations across Kansas and the Kansas City metro area. They are also interviewing up to 20 local doulas and CHWs from Missouri and Kansas about their experiences culturally brokering care communication between pregnant clients and providers. This work is rooted in the Reproductive Justice framework and other bioethical frameworks with the main goals being to provide recommendations through a manuscript and other community-based advocacy efforts to promote coordination of care mediated by doulas and CHWs, while advocating for the profession of doulas and CHWs in Kansas and Missouri.
The preliminary findings of this study will be presented at the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP) Annual Conference in Washington, DC in March 2025, KBEN Black Maternal Health Week Celebration in April 2025, and the Children’s Mercy Pediatric Bioethics Certificate Program’s Closing Weekend in May 2025.
“It’s such an honor to receive this grant and this humbling spotlight!! I had the opportunity to interview several maternal CHWs in 2022-2023 for Dr. Helena Laroche’s Connecting People to Care study in collaboration with Dr. Mariah Chrans at the Community Health Council of Wyandotte Council. Following Dr. Chrans’ sage advice, I enrolled in the Uzazi Village Perinatal Doula Training. I trained under veteran community doulas at Uzazi Village in Fall 2024 to become a Birth & Postpartum Doula. I feel so blessed to have listened to stories and seen firsthand how phenomenal these birth partners are. They tirelessly advocate, educate on sexual and reproductive health, seek out services/resources for their clients, provide comfort measures and emotional support, and give back to their community. These birth workers protect pregnant clients, infants, and their families as they patiently listen and translate across health literacy levels, language barriers, and cultural understandings. There are countless data on how they improve birth outcomes and empower clients to continue to ‘parent their children in safe and sustainable communities.’ I hope to showcase just how marvelous the doulas and maternal CHWs in our metro/regional area are and shine a light on them and how invaluable they are as part of the medical team for pregnant clients. They’re the true rockstars, and I’m just so honored to showcase that through our study!” said Lynette.
Collaborators on the project include Nalubega Ross, MS, PhD, Stephanie Kukora, MD, both of Children’s Mercy Kansas City, and Mariah Chrans, PhD, IBCLC, Community Health Council of Wyandotte County, KBEN collaborator.
The Broderick Crawford fund is an initiative of the Kansas Birth Equity Network (KBEN) and is funded by Healthy Blue. The mini-grants awarded are meant to provide support to local, grassroots KBEN members and member organizations working to improve Black maternal, paternal, and infant health in Kansas and Missouri.