Birmingham Black Maternal Health Expo offers advocacy training for moms

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ( WIAT ) — Teaching expectant moms how to be their own advocates will be a hot topic at this year’s Black Maternal Health Expo in Birmingham.

The free event offers educational workshops and seminars to inform expecting families. It will be held in the BJCC’s East Ballroom as part of this year’s Babypalooza Baby Expo, which runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Saturday. Registration is encouraged to attend.

Babypalooza’s founder Cecilia Pearson said she added the educational component to the event last year to address the disparities faced by Black moms.

“We saw that Black moms were three times more likely than other races to have complications and even death after birth,” Pearson said. “We found that education can be one of the issues that mitigates that.”

CDC statistics indicate that the maternal mortality rate for Black women in the United States was 49.5 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022, significantly higher than the rate of 19 deaths per 100,000 live births for white women.

“A lot of it really boils down to that Black women are not heard or listened to, and so our cares are kind of pushed aside,” professional midwife Nadia Gramby said.

This year’s expo will feature an “ACTT” workshop, focusing on advocacy training for expectant moms.

“That’s specifically to help moms learn how to advocate for themselves, they’re going to get to role play,” Pearson said. “That happens a lot of times where people don’t feel like they have the power to ask questions when they don’t feel well and they just accept it.”

Oasis Women’s Health founder Dr. Heather Skanes attended the expo last year to gain insight into attendee’s concerns.

“The biggest thing that I heard from women of color was: I want to make sure that I’m being treated fairly. I want to make sure that I’m being given all the information and all of the options that are available to me,” Dr. Skanes said.

For more information about the event, click here.

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