Augustana College’s Center for Advancement of Community Health and Wellness is partnering with local nonprofits and a Quad Cities clinic to collect data on prenatal care.
The center has been active since 2022, assisting community partners in health-related projects while offering interdisciplinary education for students.
The new partnership with Akwaaba QC and the Iowa Black Doula Collective plans to survey mothers, doulas, and other healthcare professionals about child birthing practices in the region.
The Center’s Sustainability Program Manager, Alyssa Klauer, says the collection will last for a year, followed by a year of analysis.
“So first, we will start by putting out an initial survey to the providers, and that'll give us a baseline of what their interactions typically are,” Klauer said. “If they have experiences working with doulas, and then as pregnant women come into the CHC, if they identify a woman who would need an appropriate doula care, then they'll refer them to the program. The Iowa Black Doula Collective will then get involved with their doula. And so they plan on having one patient and one doula per month. And then Augustana's involvement will be to help with the surveys. So then the patients will get a survey, the doulas will get a survey, and really, anybody else that's on the care team, there'll be one patient a month, and that should last for 12 months.”
Director of the Center, Dr. Kimberly Murphy, said that anytime the center has a project, they assess what is working and whether they are meeting the goals set forward.
“And so in this case, what we're really looking to do is increase the number of women who go for the prenatal visits, the 13 recommended prenatal visits, because we know that if you're more likely to go to those and engage with your healthcare professionals and your support network, that then you'll see better birthing outcomes for the pregnant person as well as the child,” Murphy said.
Klauer expanded on the project’s goals of improving maternal outcomes.
“Some of those better maternal outcomes that we're looking for, specifically getting them into those prenatal appointments, is going to help detect early health complications, whether that's preeclampsia, high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, preterm labor,” Klauer said. “But it also helps promote a healthier lifestyle, which is good for the mother and the baby, whether that's nutrition or creating healthy habits like doing some workouts.”
The partnership is funded through a $350,000 grant Better Health Foundation awarded to the regional non-profit Community Health Care, to improve and expand resources for pregnant women in the Quad Cities area.
In the past, the center has offered adult movement classes at the Moline Activity Center. Klauer said they hope to provide additional courses in the future and are planning to offer health classes for recently settled immigrants and refugees.
Other ongoing community programs include monitoring a couple of creeks in Davenport using a biofiltration system to focus on bacterial levels.
To learn more about the center, visit its website.
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