{"id":12996,"date":"2026-04-17T18:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T18:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/?p=12996"},"modified":"2026-04-17T18:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T18:26:16","slug":"black-maternal-health-week-elevateher-centering-pregnancy-and-heartwise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/black-maternal-health-week-elevateher-centering-pregnancy-and-heartwise\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Maternal Health Week: ElevateHer, Centering Pregnancy, and Heartwise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Black Maternal Health Week takes place\u00a0annually\u00a0from April 11<\/span>th<\/span>\u00a0to April 17<\/span>th<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Founded and led by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, this week-long campaign aims to build awareness, activism, and community-building to amplify the voices, perspectives, and lived experiences of Black mothers and birthing people.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Black Maternal Health Week highlights the importance of addressing the inequities\u00a0of\u00a0maternal and infant health.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to data from the New York City Health Department, Black non-Hispanic women are about five times more likely to die from a pregnancy-associated cause than white non-Hispanic women.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is due to the unfortunate\u00a0number\u00a0of disparities and<\/span> challenges women\u00a0in minority populations, such as Black women, may\u00a0face\u00a0pertaining to\u00a0accessing prenatal care, including transportation issues, low socioeconomic status, lack of insurance, low education levels, and disparities in rural and urban healthcare access.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jamaica Hospital Medical Center has three services to address these disparities: ElevateHer, Centering Pregnancy, and Heartwise.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

ElevateHer is a comprehensive pregnancy program designed to support women throughout their pregnancy and postpartum journey. By taking a \u201cwhole person\u201d approach, the program ensures that the health and well-being of the mother and baby are addressed. The program focuses on the health literacy of expectant and postpartum mothers by providing comprehensive, integrative healthcare education. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Heartwise\u00a0care is an example of comprehensive integrative care, as it is\u00a0<\/span>designed to raise awareness of the heightened risks of cardiovascular\u00a0disease related to pregnancy complications.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in women in the U.S. It is also the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S., which accounts for about 26.5% of such deaths. Approximately 1 in 3 pregnancy-related deaths are due to cardiovascular problems, with higher risks observed in Black women compared to their Hispanic or White counterparts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conditions, such as preterm delivery, hypertension, diabetes, etc., can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease by two to four times later in life. To combat this, the ElevateHer program partners with Jamaica Hospital\u2019s award-winning cardiology department for patients to have the appropriate follow-ups in group settings.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to\u00a0ElevateHer\u00a0and\u00a0Heartwise,\u00a0the\u00a0Centering Pregnancy\u00a0program,\u00a0an innovative prenatal model,\u00a0is designed to promote the overall health and well-being of mother and baby.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike traditional one-on-one prenatal visits, this approach incorporates small group sessions to\u00a0receive\u00a0medical care, education, and emotional support, to foster meaningful relationships between participants and clinicians.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After\u00a0an initial\u00a0private visit with a provider, participants in the centering pregnancy program, all of whom are in similar stages of their pregnancy, meet in a small group setting for their prenatal appointments,\u00a0where\u00a0participants share with and learn from each other\u00a0during\u00a0their pregnancy.\u00a0Each of the ten-centering prenatal care group sessions is approximately\u00a090 minutes\u00a0long. This group dynamic gives each of the participants the advantage of having more time with their provider.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the beginning of the session, our facilitator will guide each patient to get weighed, have their blood pressure checked, and record their values for the provider to review. The provider will listen to the baby\u2019s heartbeat and review the pertinent patient-specific information. After this information is collected, the 8-12 participants will form a circle and begin the fun and interactive educational session.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you would like to learn more about these services, you can schedule an appointment with an OB\/GYN at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center\u2019s\u202f<\/span>Women\u2019s Health Center<\/span><\/a>. To learn more, please call (718) 291-3276.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All content of this newsletter is intended for general information purposes only and is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Please consult a medical professional before adopting any of the suggestions on this page. You must never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking medical treatment based upon any content of this newsletter. PROMPTLY CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN OR CALL 911 IF YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY.<\/strong> <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Black Maternal Health Week takes place\u00a0annually\u00a0from April 11th\u00a0to April 17th.\u00a0\u00a0 Founded and led by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, this week-long campaign aims to build awareness, activism, and community-building to amplify the voices, perspectives, and lived experiences of Black mothers … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,20,6,409,1112,5,1,22,61,63,324,24,3,21,4],"tags":[300,135,2337,2056,180,961,722,512,27,85,126,964,42,120,473],"class_list":["post-12996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breast-feeding","category-breastfeeding","category-cardiology","category-department-spotlight","category-family-medicine","category-general-health","category-health","category-hypertension","category-lifestyle","category-mental-health","category-observance","category-parenting","category-pediatric-care","category-prenatal-care","category-womens-health","tag-parenting","tag-anxiety","tag-black-maternal-health","tag-black-maternal-health-week","tag-breastfeeding","tag-cardiology","tag-health","tag-healthy","tag-heart-disease","tag-heart-health","tag-high-blood-pressure","tag-hypertension","tag-pregnancy","tag-stress","tag-womens-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12998,"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12996\/revisions\/12998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}