New York City Baby Basics Initiative
Aim
Goals
Program Components
Collaborating Partners
Aim
To empower pregnant women to:
- access, act on, and understand healthcare information
- have a healthier pregnancy outcome
- be better able to provide a healthier future for her child
Goals
Baby Basics New York will build a continuum of prenatal health literacy education, practices, and interventions for expectant families in need. Through innovative collaboration as a community, we will use emerging research in health literacy, cultural competency, and causes of prematurity to effectively address the health disparities facing New York’s at-risk expecting families and create new standard of quality for prenatal care and education. This program will provide comprehensive health information and education that will:
- Provide pregnant women with comprehensive prenatal educational materials and health literacy support so they can become partners in their own and their child’s healthcare
- Give prenatal care providers and educators effective and coordinated tools and strategies to better communicate with and teach at-risk families
- Develop an evaluated, replicable Baby Basics prenatal health literacy model that can be applied across the city, state, and country.
Program Components
The pilot program, which will reach a minimum of 2,000 pregnant women, will consist of four parts:
- clearly written, beautifully designed, appropriate materials
- provider training
- community collaboration
- evaluation
The Baby Basics Book
Baby Basics: Your Month by Month Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy (in Spanish titled Hola Bebé) is a comprehensive prenatal guide that addresses the special economic, social, health, and literacy skills of low-income families and provides them with information that was previously unavailable to them in any written format. Every patient receives a copy of this book at her first prenatal appointment.
The Baby Basics Training
Healthcare providers and educators receive training in health literacy and cultural competency issues facing their patients, and specific strategies for effective teaching. Each professional who cares for mothers—from doctors, nurses, and health educators to nutritionists, doulas, and home visitors—will learn how to incorporate Baby Basics and health literacy strategies into their care, ensuring that their language and instructions are “on the same page.”
The Baby Basics Discussion Group / Waiting Room Program
At each monthly prenatal appointment, mothers are invited to take part in a discussion group that provides them with a supportive opportunity to discuss their pregnancy and learn health literacy strategies. Using the Baby Basics book as a starting point, and run by health educators, these groups will also incorporate Baby Basics curricula that teach the group how to fill out forms, navigate health systems, and make the most of their appointment with the doctor or nurse midwife. In addition, children’s books in the prenatal waiting room will help parents learn to read to their baby.
The Evaluation
Many of the New York City Baby Basics strategies have been culled from informal practice and program building steps created and implemented by prenatal care programs and literacy educators across the country in cities such as Newark, NJ; Houston, TX; and Stamford, CT. For the first time, with stellar partners and planning, this intervention is being codified and will be measured through rigorous evaluation. Program outcomes will help us create a citywide initiative that will be the “gold standard” of evaluated, evidence-based health literacy practice in prenatal care.