Healthy Start Coalition focused on getting pregnant women through the worries of COVID-19 | Opinion

Just imagine for a moment being a woman who is pregnant right now. What should be one of the happiest events of your life is suddenly clouded with stress, fear and uncertainty.

Instead of the joyful hopes of a healthy pregnancy, you may be faced with postponing prenatal care, canceling a baby shower with loved ones, worrying about being alone at the hospital and doing without much-needed in-person support from family and friends after your baby is born.

Pregnancy and the early weeks of parenthood — typically times of celebration, family joy, and connection with loved ones — have been drastically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Family members of all ages and this community’s courageous healthcare providers are treading in uncharted, turbulent waters. All of us are reckoning with a new age of high anxiety, isolation and social distancing.

This, Maternal Mental Health Month, is observed in recognition of the added emotional stress that pregnancy can bring, even in the best of times. But these are frightening times as the perilous COVID-19 crisis continues to change our way of life.

And as stressful as things are for everyone, they can be extra worrisome for pregnant women and new moms, who are concerned not only for themselves, but for the hourly needs of their babies.

The Healthy Start Coalition of Miami-Dade, one of 32 coalitions statewide, works to improve the lives of pregnant women and their newborns up to age 3. Our collective impact has been phenomenal. Over the almost 30 years since the creation of Healthy Start, Florida has succeeded in reducing infant mortality by 32 percent — the best improvement of any state in our nation.

During the past few months, Miami-Dade’s Healthy Start program is adapting to address the maternal health needs of Florida’s most populous and culturally diverse community. Our dedicated teams of case workers and therapists are connecting with moms and new families using consistent outreach and telehealth to provide education, address physical needs, and offer psychosocial counseling.

Pregnant women and their families are seeking this support now, more than ever before, as they embark on their parenting journey during this unprecedented emotional and economic crisis.

The mounting uncertainty and anxiety alone add extra pressure that can cause expectant mothers to go into pre-term labor. Social isolation during and after pregnancy make women even more vulnerable to postpartum depression and other mental health challenges. This makes access the quality services all the more critical.

Our coalition provides a connection to free care coordination and customized services based on each family’s goals and needs. We focus on lessening the dangers associated with pre-term birth, low birth weight, infant distress and poor growth-related outcomes.

Despite the intense challenges, we embrace our mission with passion and professionalism, uplifted by the strength and love our mothers and their entire families share with their young children. It is inspiring to see the view from where we are as helpers, guides, and allied advocates.

The relationships we have developed with our community’s obstetricians and gynecologists, nurses, midwives and the administrators and medical staff of the county’s 14 birthing hospitals has created a vital around-the-clock service network.

Miami-Dade County is home to some 32,000 births each year, 615 a week — 88 every day — and there are no days off. That daily reality provides a compelling motivation to do the right thing for each family.

When it comes to children, it’s not whether we pay, it’s when. Providing essential pregnancy services and quality infant care are both emotional and economic imperatives.

Continuing to invest wisely in public healthcare is one of the best ways to ensure heathy outcomes for new moms and their babies. Our Coalition team members believe that the emergence of new life will be one of the most important and positive takeaways from this frightening and difficult time.

To get help or to learn more, visit https://www.hscmd.org/ or call 305-541-0210.

Manuel “Manny” Fermin is the founding CEO of the Healthy Start Coalition of Miami-Dade, a position he has held since 2001.

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