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In 2022, Independence Blue Cross (IBX) started working with Cayaba Care to assist enhance maternal well being outcomes for our most at-risk members, notably Black and Brown individuals. Cayaba gives help for individuals throughout and after being pregnant, to assist them overcome a number of the challenges that enhance their threat of maternal morbidity and mortality.
In 2024, Dr. Adaeze Enekwechi joined Cayaba as the corporate’s new Chief Government Officer. Lately, I sat down together with her to ask in regards to the imaginative and prescient and methods she has for Cayaba, and I’d wish to share highlights from our dialog.
Selling Equitable Maternal Care
Dr. Ross: Inform us about your background and your curiosity in maternal well being.
Dr. Enekwechi: I’m a well being coverage and economics skilled by background. Along with working within the personal sector, I spent a few years in authorities, together with serving as head of well being applications for President Obama on the White Home Workplace of Administration and Funds. I’ve spent my profession ensuring sources are being spent and directed in ways in which finally make a distinction in individuals’s well being and well-being.
In relation to maternal well being outcomes, I’ve stopped quoting statistics on how badly the US is doing. Suffice it to say, it’s shameful {that a} nation this rich is performing as poorly on this space as growing international locations.
And a number of the most weak individuals are ladies who seem like me. Usually it doesn’t even matter what their earnings and schooling ranges are, so long as they’re Black or Brown.
Personally, I do know this battle from each perspective — by my direct expertise, my work, and my schooling. And I’m simply as terrified of those unhealthy outcomes as anyone else. So it’s an honor to have a chance to attempt to clear up this big concern with Cayaba.
Dr. Ross: What are the challenges individuals of colour face in accessing equitable maternity care?
Dr. Enekwechi: Once you’re an individual of colour, in some methods the well being care system is simply not geared up to listen to you. We name this implicit bias…however typically it’s not implicit, it’s simply plain bias. It’s specific.
Even Black ladies physicians usually report being actively dismissed, ignored, and gaslit after they have well being points — regardless that they really have the medical coaching to articulate what they’re experiencing in phrases that different suppliers perceive. So think about how it’s for somebody who doesn’t have the vocabulary to explain their well being issues!
Typically you simply want somebody to inform you that the whole lot goes to be okay. However Black ladies inform me, “No one ever thinks to say that to me.”
Establishing Belief Is the “Secret Sauce”
Dr. Ross: How is Cayaba addressing these challenges?
Dr. Enekwechi: Efficient well being care finally comes right down to a few issues. It’s native, it’s based mostly on belief, and it’s based mostly on empathy.
That’s what Cayaba’s Maternity Navigators convey. They’re intentionally employed from the communities they serve. So our shoppers really feel like they’re speaking to somebody who hears them, can join with them, and, importantly, provides them company, helps them body their questions as they work together with their obstetrician.
However Cayaba gives much more — like lactation consulting. Lately a person informed me, “After my spouse had her child, having a lactation marketing consultant wasn’t simply help — it was a psychological well being intervention.” These new dad and mom based mostly their entire self-worth on with the ability to breastfeed their child. And since their child wasn’t in a position to latch on and wasn’t feeding, issues began to go awry fairly rapidly. We had been fast to intervene earlier than issues bought worse, and it helped the dad in addition to the mother. Lactation help meant the whole lot to them.
We additionally make sturdy medical gear very simply accessible, like breast pumps. The place applicable, we equip our shoppers with blood strain cuffs, prepare them in utilizing them, present them find out how to file their readings. We educate them find out how to actually maintain themselves in ways in which most of us might not be taught at residence.
Dr. Ross: How does Cayaba choose its workers?
Dr. Enekwechi: We rent individuals from the neighborhood, medical assistants and neighborhood well being staff, and prepare them within the Cayaba Care mannequin. Our Maternity Navigators are all doula-certified — we facilitate that coaching. However we additionally display screen them for empathy. The individuals we rent for these roles converse the language of these they’re caring for, they perceive them.
The evaluations we get from individuals who work with our Maternity Navigators say, “I trusted her. She trusted me. She held my hand. She was by no means condescending. She revered me.”
That’s what we convey. That’s our secret sauce.
Going The place the Want Is Best
Dr. Ross: How does Cayaba work with suppliers like obstetricians, midwives, and nurse practitioners?
Dr. Enekwechi: We’re in Philadelphia, the place many individuals giving start are at excessive threat for poor outcomes, and we speak with well being care suppliers. Suppliers are our companions; they refer their sufferers, we share knowledge with them, now we have an lively partnership with them. Supplier practices know their sufferers might use wrap-around providers and help. We present them that we will help forestall NICU visits, maternal morbidity and mortality, and preterm deliveries. We now have the info to again that up; now we have actual proof.
Our type of help is just not one thing pregnant individuals are accustomed to as a result of it often doesn’t exist. We’d like our suppliers to inform them, “Hey, speak to Cayaba. Interact with them and see. This could possibly be fairly helpful to you.”
Dr. Ross: What are your rapid and long-term objectives for Cayaba?
Dr. Enekwechi: I don’t need anybody who might be working with us to not be working with us. That’s my objective. There are too many ladies we all know, too many individuals and households, that might vastly profit from Cayaba’s help. They usually deserve it. That’s my massive objective, to serve all of the individuals and households we needs to be supporting. I additionally wish to deepen and broaden our partnership with IBX, and serve our members over a protracted time period as a member of this neighborhood.
Unfold the Phrase
Well being outcomes are unacceptably poor for pregnant individuals of colour. That’s who’s on the at highest threat for poor outcomes. We strongly encourage them to benefit from this service, which is out there for gratis to IBX members, in addition to our different maternal well being sources and providers.
In the event you, or somebody you understand, would possibly profit from this type of help, please contact Cayaba. Everybody deserves the very best likelihood of a wholesome and profitable being pregnant, supply, and postpartum interval.
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