Notre Dame, county partner on maternal health support
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A University of Notre Dame assistant professor has received funding from a St. Joseph County Health Department initiative to pilot a novel “one-stop shop” of health resources available to new mothers.
Yenupini Joyce Adams, an assistant professor at both the Eck Institute for Global Health and the Keough School of Global Affairs, received $65,000 from Health First St. Joseph County to create the Pop Up Pregnancy & Family Village, the university said in a news release.
“The goal of the Pop Up Pregnancy & Family Village is to establish a trusted, consistent, monthly ‘one-stop shop’ for mothers and families to access connection to care, resources and support that will address social drivers of health, well-being, and mental health, in addition to physical health during pregnancy and the postpartum period, in one convenient location,” Adams said in the news release.
The program will begin in August and September at locations in South Bend and Mishawaka. There will be no cost for participants to attend and receive care.
Adams plans to use insights gleaned from her work in Ghana to address maternal mortality through group postpartum care. Although prenatal care programs that offer peer support to expectant mothers are common in the U.S., the news release said, the group care model developed by Adams will be among the first to be integrated into a U.S. health care system.
Health First St. Joseph County, which receives support from the Health First Indiana plan passed by lawmakers in 2023, aims to improve public health through local partnerships. Nearly 20 organizations are set to receive nearly $1 million this year.