Nurturely

Nurturely was my first baby. My dream was to start a community-based social change organization that uses research to understand and solve health equity challenges. This is a difficult task because the funding structures and resources for community-based orgs are not set up to support research, despite this being a critical tool for preventing disparities. Simultaneously, systems of academic institutions are not set up to address disparities from a community-based approach. 👎🏻 Thanks to the IMPROVE Initiative from Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), this is starting to change. Nurturely had the very special opportunity to participate in a national challenge: the IMPROVE Initiative’s Connecting the Community for Maternal Health Challenge, dedicated to building research infrastructure in community-based organizations, helping to set us up to be competitive for NIH and other funding mechanisms.📊 We are excited and grateful to announce that out of 8 national finalists in this challenge (of 95 participating teams), Nurturely was the recipient of the First Place Prize! 🏆 This week we traveled to the National Institutes of Health HQ to present our research update as the challenge winners. Together with Aver Y. , Nurturely Program Director, and alongside the many other talented participants of the IMPROVE Initiative, we shared an update on our implementation and effectiveness research testing infant carrying as a cultural intervention to reduce postpartum depression and increase lactation. But the best part was sharing the stage with our newest team member..... Zylo Orion Little Junod! 👶🏼 This sweet boy was born on September 2nd, full term and healthy under the committed and compassionate care of midwives and doulas (including the one and only Sabia Wade!) Zylo is committed to building a world where wellness for all babies and caregivers is a human right, and he’s already hard at work, sharing his message at NIH and beyond! He learned so much from this two-day research meeting and can't wait to expand our collaborations as we continue pursuing equity-centered effectiveness and implementation research 💪🏼 A huge thank you to the dedicated team at NIH, especially including Juanita J. Chinn, Ph.D., Nahida Chakhtoura, Maurice Davis, and Jennifer Wisdom, for stewarding this unique opportunity to bridge academia and the community, and for believing in Nurturely's vision of using preventative, culturally-rooted research to solve postpartum health disparities. 💯 #IMPROVEInitiative #MaternalHealthEquity #PerinatalHealth https://lnkd.in/edM54iVx

Feeding your baby with your body is a racial justice issue. At Nurturely, we support however you choose to feed your baby. AND we care deeply about ensuring equitable access to informed choices, accurate information, and proactive support for everyone—because #HumanMilkisaHumanRight. **The Problems:** 💧 Lactation has a painful history—during enslavement, Black mothers were forced to breastfeed their enslavers' children 💧 Today, racism in medicine persists: Black infants are 9x more likely to be offered formula in hospitals than white infants 💧 Cultural racism leaves global majority parents without culturally appropriate lactation support, as many spaces are white-centered **The Solutions:** 🖤 Leaders like Kimberly Seals Allers are highlighting these barriers in books like *The Big Letdown* (highly recommend!) 🖤 The founders of Black Breastfeeding Week are championing racial equity in lactation (now in its 12th year!) 🖤 Research from Dr. Ifeyinwa Asiodu is advancing our understanding of racism in lactation 🖤 Tools like the Melanated Mammary Atlas are eliminating excuses for racism in clinical lactation care, thank you Nekisha Killings MPH, IBCLC 🖤 Nurturely is collaborating with Black-led home visiting programs to explore culturally-rooted lactation support solutions like baby carrying 🖤 Our Milk Magic Educators program treats lactation as a racial justice issue, offering full scholarships to Black birthworkers, with self-paced classes led by experienced professionals. 🎉 As we celebrate #BlackBreastfeedingWeek, I reflect with gratitude on attending the 10th-anniversary celebration in NY, where I connected with many of these amazing leaders and Milk Magic Educators. Here's to continued celebrations and the important work ahead!

New Report! Wildfires Threaten Pregnancies! “Human Rights Watch and Nurturely interviewed more than 50 maternal health providers including doctors, doulas, midwives, and community health workers in Oregon – a state greatly affected by wildfires – as well as public health officials and scientists. Findings showed that trusted community-based health workers, including doulas and midwives, are important but under-supported in providing information and protective strategies. They found that some communities struggle to find and use public health information, like advice on when and how to use air filters on high-risk, low-air-quality wildfire smoke days. Pregnant people and other at-risk groups should be included in planning how to reach the groups who can most benefit from the information.” Access the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gZfivgFQ

Many people want to support the arrival of our little one with gifts - and we’re so grateful! But here’s my actual baby wishlist. All this baby wants is to come into a world where… 🖤 racism and inequities are eliminated 🖤 access to human milk is a human right 🖤 cultural practices like baby carrying are uplifted 🖤 postpartum is synonymous with support 🖤 cultures are connected locally/globally 🖤 climates are protected and resilience is prioritized I don’t think it’s asking too much 💅🏼 Contribute to this registry HERE: https://lnkd.in/grjwt6yF If just a portion of my social media connections donated *just* $5, this lucky babe would be well on their way to reaching our Nurturely registry goal ✨ 🖤#babyregistry #perinatalequity https://lnkd.in/grjwt6yF Photo by Wild Earth Weddings

As a licensed clinical social worker, therapist, researcher, and advocate, I am so encouraged by a shift in society’s perception of mental health. If you didn’t know, Black Maternal Mental Health Week (July 19-24) is an awareness week started by Shades of Blue Project. Why do we need a Black Maternal Mental Health Week? Black mamas and birthing people have higher rates of postpartum depression, yet the least access to prevention and treatment. Interventions to support postpartum mental health are not based in Black or Global Majority cultural practices. And this needs to change. At Nurturely, we are addressing these disparities through: 1. Research: Nurturely has published research showing that infant carrying, a cultural practice rooted in Black and Global Majority communities, is effective in reducing symptoms of postpartum depression; 2. Education: Nurturely designed an infant carrying course for perinatal professionals to learn how to incorporate this preventative intervention into your healthcare services, community care practice, or digital health platform (contact us for details!); and 3. Cultural Change: It's important to change the narrative that "postpartum" equals depression, because it does not! Check out the article from Nurturely Founder: https://lnkd.in/gUCbfbk8 Additional calls to action — educate yourself, share with others, apply to join the Nurturely Board if you feel aligned with this work, and if you are interested in donating to our new climate resilient, double the space, healing Nurturely Lounge where a lot of this education and cultural change happens, you can do so here: https://lnkd.in/gvh-2E_n. Let’s remember we’re connected, may we take care of ourselves and one another. ♥️✊🏾

It's Black Maternal Mental Health Week, an awareness week initiated by Shades of Blue Project. I'm honored to serve on Nurturely's board of directors, a non-profit dedicated to addressing the root causes of perinatal inequity, including Black maternal mental health disparities. Black birthing people face higher rates of postpartum depression with limited access to prevention and treatment. Nurturely's work focuses on culturally rooted interventions to support postpartum mental health. At Nurturely, we're combating these challenges through: 1. Research: Our studies demonstrate the effectiveness of culturally grounded practices like infant carrying in reducing postpartum depression symptoms. 2. Education: We offer perinatal professionals a course on infant carrying to learn how to incorporate this preventive intervention into their healthcare services, community care practice, or digital health platform (reach out for details!). 3. Cultural Change: We're reshaping the narrative around postpartum experiences, highlighting that it doesn't have to equal depression. Interested in learning more? Access Nurturely's journal article on preventing postpartum depression here: https://lnkd.in/e7JgpCQc #BlackMaternalMentalHealth #PerinatalEquity #MentalHealthAwareness #WomensHealth

Starting an organization is incredibly challenging. Balancing the need for business success (aka, revenue generation) alongside impact success (aka, having a wellness-centered model, keeping racial equity centered, and maintaining your own humanity) is even more challenging. I’m so lucky to have had the best BUSINESS doula by my side for the growing and nurturing of my first baby, Nurturely (in addition to having a great friend while now growing an actual baby…!) Sabia Wade is best known for the massive following and community she built as a reproductive justice leader, podcaster, speaker, curriculum developer, and so much more at The Black Doula (AND Birthing Advocacy Doula Trainings AND For the Village!). Oh, also author of one of my favorite reproductive justice books: Birthing Liberation! 📙 Now, she brings her lens of collective liberation and intersectional inclusion to *anti-capitalist business coaching* in her new podcast and mentorship community: Found Free. I cannot recommend her coaching services enough, which she makes accessible with her new monthly membership model. If you are building a team, business, nonprofit, or any revenue-generating enterprise, and you want to keep humanity, wellness, and equity at the center, this is a service you must invest in! buff.ly/3VKkPkU “Found Free is set apart by the dedicated focus on understanding the layers of humanity through a lens of radical liberation and reproductive justice, echoing the message that “when we center the most marginalized, we all benefit.”. Sabia, a skilled builder of bridges, brings her experience as an author, coach, full-spectrum doula, spiritual director, educator, CEO, and Domme to her new podcast with the same candid fearlessness as found in her previous project, The Black Doula podcast.”

I am excited to share that I have been appointed to the Board of Directors at Nurturely, a nonprofit that works on advancing perinatal health equity across the United States. It does this by tackling the root causes of perinatal inequity (systemic racism in care, disproportionate climate impacts, and barriers to a representative perinatal workforce) through: 1) prevention focused education for perinatal professionals, 2) community based research that advances policies for caregivers, 3) grassroots engagement. With the disparities in health care access in America, and the lack of legal and social structures to support families, I am ready to apply my experience working in global health towards this goal. I am looking forward to working closely with Emily Little, PhD, Chidimma Ozor Commer, PhD, LMSW, Mamta Elias and Randy T. and learning together. I will share updates and asks here along the way!

Because I've been in this work for so long, and feel so strongly about perinatal advocacy, people are often surprised to find out that (until now!) I had never been pregnant or given birth. But I strongly believe that everyone should be an advocate for this cause, no matter their perinatal journey. At Nurturely, we invite everyone to participate in our vision of a world where wellness for infants and caregivers is a human right, not a privilege. You don't need to be a parent - or have had a perinatal journey of your own - to be an advocate for equity during pregnancy and postpartum as the foundation of a thriving society. As someone experiencing pregnancy with many layers of privilege to buffer my journey, this pregnancy does not give me the “lived experience” that Nurturely aims to amplify and prioritize. But it does make me even more committed to Nurturely's mission of perinatal equity, prioritizing change for those most impacted by the injustices of our current systems. #perinatalequity #pregnancyannouncement