Maternal Health Classes to Empower Moms

SOUTH BEND, IN (WSBT) — Making sure every mother knows they are supported, the Maternal and Infant Health team of the St. Joseph County Health Department is launching a new initiative.

EMBER, Empowering Moms and Babies Through Education and Resilience, is helping moms feel empowered, providing education during their pregnancy and after their baby is delivered.

It’s geared towards educating moms through every stage of pregnancy while also providing postpartum support, which is often overlooked.

Health officials believe programs like these are needed in St. Joseph County.

“Some of the information that we’re covering is just trying to be a little holistic, so we’re covering pregnancy changes that happen to your body as well as mom’s mental health, taking care of the baby, safe sleep things to watch out for,” said Chaquisha Jordan, Maternal Infant Health Coordinator.

With education being on the forefront, Jordan said they’ll also focus on postpartum as moms have to take care of themselves while their body is reverting to take care of their baby.

“A lot of times your pregnancy and after birth a lot of focus is strictly on the baby, but no one‘s really taking care of mom and so we wanted to make sure that we are giving mom‘s the resources and the tools that they need,” said Jordan.

The initiative was started after discussions on fetal and infant deaths around the state and county, as well as speaking with mothers on what they needed during pregnancy and afterward.

The Indiana State Department of Health provided an infant mortality dashboard showing an average of 8 deaths per 1,000 live births from 2018-2022 in St. Joseph County.

In 2022 alone, the average was 9 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Jordan said she wants moms to feel empowered, know that there is support available, and answers to their needs.

“They felt isolated postpartum, they felt like they weren’t getting the care that they needed early enough, that maybe their providers weren’t hearing them, that they weren’t educated enough about what’s going on with their bodies,” said Jordan.

With a background in nursing working with high-risk labor and delivery, Jordan said overall she has witnessed lot of missed educational opportunities and is grateful to be in the position she is today.

“Being able to be on the front end of providing them that information and here’s where you can go for all these things and giving mom all the support that she needs,” said Jordan.

Classes are free and will be held every Tuesday at the Beacon Resource Center starting Sept 10th.