Lauren Anita Arrington (she/her) is interested in applying tactics that emerge from social justice movements to advance perinatal health equity. She is an assistant professor and the Susan H. Mayer Endowed Professor in Health Equity at Georgetown University School of Nursing. She practices midwifery in Baltimore, Maryland, and co-leads the development of the Maryland Maternal Health Innovation Program’s (MDMOM) Maternal Health Equity Toolkit and community of learning. As a maternal health advisor for Jhpiego, she collaborated with healthcare experts in Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, Lesotho, and Malawi to strengthen midwifery education and services. She serves on the Board of Commissioners for the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education (ACME) and is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health.
Research Project: Centering Justice – Implementing the Black Birthing Bill of Rights in a Centering Pregnancy Program
Globally, Black birthing people experience alarming rates of maternal mortality and morbidity (Souza et al., 2024). Group antenatal care models (also known as Centering Pregnancy) that focus on the needs of Black birthing people have the potential to increase healthcare system accountability and trustworthiness and improve emotional and physical outcomes for Black birthing people (Liese et al., 2022). The National Association to Advance Black Birth (2024) created the Black Birthing Bill of Rights to ensure that each Black woman and birthing person understands and can exercise their rights in healthcare settings. The project leader will integrate the Black Birthing Bill of Rights into the prenatal curriculum for a Centering Pregnancy Program focused on Black Birthing people at a community hospital in Baltimore, MD. The project leader will develop and implement an educational session on the Black Birthing Bill of Rights for healthcare providers and administrators in the hospital’s Maternal Child Health Department. The Mothers on Respect Index (Vedam et al., 2017) will be used to assess respectful care pre and post-intervention at the project site for Black women and birthing people. The Mothers on Respect Index will be administered to patients who identify racially as Black and gave birth at the study site during the six months before the intervention and patients who identify as Black and participate in the Centering Pregnancy program with the Black Birthing Bill of Rights. “Centering Justice – Implementing the Black Birthing Bill of Rights in a Centering Pregnancy Program” operationalizes reproductive justice in a healthcare setting and has the potential to expand knowledge of how to address health inequities.