The Power of Community in Addressing Infant Mortality Inequities

On opposite ends of North Carolina, collaborations in Buncombe and Chatham counties are tackling infant mortality inequities with innovative strategies. While their strategies differ, both groups use an approach that is driven by authentic community voice and directly contributes to dismantling structural racism. The Mountain Area Health Education Center in Asheville is transitioning their leadership of the Mothering Asheville Coalition to SistasCaring4Sistas, a group of Black doulas with lived experience, and is supporting the doulas' work to become a nonprofit organization that will serve the entire state. Chatham County Health Department leads the Equity for Moms and Babies Realized Across Chatham Coalition, a group that relies on recommendations from birthing individuals with lived experience to continually assess and revise hospital policies and practices to improve birth experiences in addition to birth outcomes. The work of these communities highlights several implications for advancing health equity, including the need to establish and maintain trust with the community served, include those with lived experience and expertise in decision making, guide strategies, take risks, and facilitate organizational culture change.