A Mother’s Story: Beyond the Checklist
Emily Johnson’s story sheds light on Postpartum Anxiety and suicidal thoughts and how screening alone isn’t alone isn’t enough. Her experience highlights the urgent need for invlusive, culturally responsive mental health care that truly supports all birthing people. Read her story.
A Mother’s Story: Postpartum Anxiety and Suicidal Thoughts and the Need to Do More Than Screen
A new School of Public Health study finds that perinatal care among AI/AN people is insufficient for many, but access to Indian Health Service care and health insurance coverage may help.
Prioritizing DEI in maternal healthcare helps create a fairer system where all women receive quality care, leading to better health outcomes and a stronger, more equitable society.
“In this cohort study, food insecurity in pregnancy was associated with a higher risk of perinatal complications, and these associations were overall attenuated to the null among individuals who received food assistance in pregnancy. These findings support clinical guidelines of screening for food insecurity in pregnancy and provide evidence to expand food assistance programs that may help improve maternal and neonatal outcomes.” See link for more information.
Food Insecurity in Pregnancy, Receipt of Food Assistance, and Perinatal Complications
“Now, organizations across North America are resuscitating the practice of Indigenous doulas. They’re training them to offer culturally safe, emotional and physical care, relying on traditional knowledge and reestablishing their place in the health care system: by the sides of Indigenous birthing women, where today’s doulas say they were always meant to be.” Read more below!
Indigenous doulas are helping Native moms take back their health after centuries of discrimination
The National Indian Health Board developed the Tribal Prenatal-to-Three Policy Agenda to raise
awareness regarding the most impactful and culturally appropriate policy levers and strategies
to support American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) health and wellbeing in the earliest years
of life, from the prenatal period through age 3. These recommendations chart a path forward to
health equity and improved outcomes for AI/AN families, infants, and toddlers.
2024 Tribal Prenatal-To-Three Policy Agenda
2214 North Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85004 Phone: 602-258-4822 Fax: 602-258-4825, Copyright © 2011 - 2025 Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc.