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Striving to support health organizations bolstering resources to families in need, Johns Hopkins Health Plans has awarded the Alliance for Black NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) Families with a $20,000 grant to further support their breast pump program.
Alliance for Black NICU Families is a nonprofit organization working to support and elevate the voices of underserved Black families caring for NICU and post-NICU children.
Determined to alleviate the severe discrepancy of inequitable resources within many African American communities, maternal health advocates and mothers to post-NICU children, Deb Discenza and Ashley Randolph, sought to address the critical issue that Black mothers of NICU babies face in struggling to maintain resources that will sustain their children’s health, particularly when breastfeeding their vulnerable newborns.
“We came up with the breast pump program because we wanted to equalize access, and that was a big piece of it. What do white mothers get better access to? A breast pump. And when I found out that there was a wearable breast pump I thought, this is genius, because many of us, Black or white, have to go back to work after having a baby,” said Discenza. “A lot of moms don’t expect to have a preterm infant or baby in the NICU, so for them, it creates such upheaval. So, the idea was to give them access to a wearable breast pump.”
According to March of Dimes’ PeriStats, Black infants rate highest in preterm births across the United States at 14.4%, followed by American Indian/Alaska Natives (11.8 %), Hispanics (10%), Whites (9.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islanders (9%).
Finding the perfect solution to an often dire situation for Black mothers, The Alliance for Black NICU Families decided to actively supply working mothers with portable breastfeeding pumps at no cost to the family, to simplify the process of breastfeeding their NICU babies.
Physicians often stress the importance of mothers providing their milk if possible, as it serves the best nutritional value of feeding for their baby, especially a NICU infant whose vitals are not stabilized.
Discenza, also the CEO of a company called “PreemieWorld,” found herself merging with the ideals and principles of Randolph, founder of Glo Preemies, while actively advocating in maternal health spaces and collective boards. The duo began spearheading the organization’s efforts to give Black mothers a community of support to better manage the lonely spaces that mothers to NICU babies often find themselves in.
“I was that mom who stood in WIC three times, all of every month to make sure I could keep that breast pump. I don’t want any other Black mom to have to do that, with kids on their hip and trying to figure out how [they] are going to work,” Randolph shared.
Randolph is not alone, as mothers across the country bear the burden of scrambling to secure financial and medical resources to support their children with vulnerable conditions while simultaneously holding down their jobs and home responsibilities with little to no assistance.
The organization looks forward to utilizing the generous donation from Johns Hopkins Health Plans to maximize its inventory of portable breast pumps to reach more mothers who are working and on the go.
“Initially we had to raise the funds to get the first round of breast pumps. They are now our biggest sponsor for the breast pump program. We are so grateful they are putting this initiative forward because it is letting our families and everyone else know that this is something that can drastically change a mother’s life,” Randolph said.
“We’ve had NICU moms who were able to start going back out or getting dressed while still pumping so that they still had milk for their babies while at the same time being able to take care of their own needs and get back to their old selves,” Randolph added. “I don’t know how big this may trickle out to be, but I do know this is making changes at a rapid pace.”