On the mend: N.C. A&T, UNC-CH work to build trust for better maternal health

A partnership between North Carolina A&T and UNC-Chapel aims to improve pregnancy outcomes and build equitable trust between patients and healthcare professionals.

BELIEVE, or “Building Equitable Linkages with Interprofessional Education Valuing Everyone”, is a developing project between both universities created to assess gaps in current maternal practice and build and implement a curriculum to address these issues across a network of hospital and community providers.

“I am completely still in awe every day that we are actually working on this project,” said Janiya Williams, program director and clinical instructor in the Pathway 2 Human Lactation Training program in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.

In July 2022, N.C. A&T and UNC-Chapel Hill received a $2.3 million grant from the American Heart Association. With it, they developed BELIEVE. This year, the BELIEVE team is building its curriculum with the aid of student testing and dialogue across HBCU partners and the EQUATE Network. 

Williams, an instructor in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, leads the project alongside Kimberly C. Harper, Ph.D., an associate professor in N.C. A&T’s English department; Alison Stuebe, M.D., M.Sc., a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the UNC School of Medicine; and Kimberly D. Harper, perinatal neonatal outreach coordinator at the UNC School of Medicine.

“I have worked collaboratively with the PI’s at UNC-CH and Dr. (Kimberly C.) Harper for a few years now on smaller projects,” she said. “However, the BELIEVE project sparks immense excitement, because we’re uniting providers, pre-professionals in healthcare, community birth workers, and organizations and birthing families to reshape maternal health equity, uplift Black joy, and dismantle obstetrical racism for a brighter future.”

Over the summer, the BELIEVE team took part in two events critical to spreading awareness of the developing project. The first, an HBCU Convening, was held on June 9 at St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh, in which each of the universities in the EQUATE Network and attending HBCUs – including N.C. A&T, Winston-Salem State, North Carolina Central, and Charles Drew Universities, respectively – gathered to facilitate a dialogue to identify synergy and opportunities for collaboration to improve maternal health.

The second, an inaugural BELIEVE in Black Joy Gala, was held the following day at St. Augustine’s University.

“The overall goal of the gala was to celebrate the power and resilience of Black joy and to acknowledge the vital work being done by clinicians, activists, elected officials, community organizations, researchers, and most importantly, Black families, in supporting maternal health,” said Williams.

The fourth class of the A&T Lactation Program is the first to have a white coat ceremony. The program has 100 percent graduation and placement rate, said Janiya Williams, the program’s director..

During the gala, three students across the EQUATE network received a $1,000 BELIEVE Maternal Health scholarship towards their studies in maternal and child health: graduate student Kennedy Bridges of UNC-Chapel Hill, public health education major Patreka Cyrus of UNC-Greensboro, and recent student of N.C. A&T’s P2H lactation program 4^th cohort Leatrice Priest.

Another planned event, an opportunity to host a discussion at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, is slated for July 2024, according to Williams.

This year, as the project moves forward, the team is developing their curriculum. Kimberly C. Harper, an expert in technical writing, bias, and visual rhetoric, has taken the lead on writing the curriculum best practices to help address implicit biases that providers may have.

“The BELIEVE curriculum is innovative because it is an Interprofessional curriculum for pre and post licensure medical and allied health professionals”, said Harper. “We are including everyone who might deal with the mother/birthing person and their family—so your OBGYN, nurse, lactation consultant, social worker, doula, anesthesiologist—the entire team.”

According to Harper, the curriculum will consist of an escape room, in which participants will take pre-assessments to test their knowledge of health equity principals. From there, as a group, the medical team will be presented with a case based on pain assessment or hypertension and will have one hour to work through the case and exit the room.

Kimberly C. Harper, Ph.D., an associate professor in N.C. A&T’s English department, is part of the project team.

“We chose this strategy because it will allow us to use everyone’s knowledge base as well as encourage communication between the professions,” said Harper.

So far, Harper said, 13 students across N.C. A&T, UNC’s IPEP (Interprofessional Education and Practice) program and affiliate HBCU student partners have committed to test and work on the project.

“We are just now beginning to start on this process because most students were away for the summer,” said Williams. “We plan to utilize an equal number of students from the HBCUs collaborating with us and UNC-CH students from various pre-professional concentrations and levels (undergrad/grad/post-grad). We will have them assist us with building the curriculum by telling us what is missing in their current curriculums. Students will also have the opportunity to present and publish alongside us.”

As the curriculum builds for BELIEVE, N.C. A&T’s P2H lactation program, housed in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, continues its momentum as it recognized 10 new students of its 4^th cohort in a White Coat ceremony on August 15.

“The White Coat Ceremony is a ritual of crossing over into the clinical realm for students in health science programs,” said Williams. “Due to COVID-19, our first three cohorts were recognized virtually. This ceremony not only recognizes their dedication and hard work, but also the support they’ve received through their family, friends, and student faculty.”

The program, according to Williams, currently holds a 100 percent graduation and placement rate, with students receiving work in facilities such as Atrium Baptist Health, Cone Health, and Duke University Hospital.

In addition, a Cone Health lactation clinic, held at the General Classroom Building and staffed by students and graduates of the lactation certificate program, will reopen after September 11 to accommodate the beginning of the school year. For more information, call (336) 285-3176 or email ncatp2p@ncat.edu.