In 2022, Independence Blue Cross (IBX) started working with Cayaba Care to assist enhance maternal well being outcomes for our most at-risk members, notably Black and Brown folks. Cayaba supplies assist for folks throughout and after being pregnant, to assist them overcome among the challenges that improve their danger of maternal morbidity and mortality.
In 2024, Dr. Adaeze Enekwechi joined Cayaba as the corporate’s new Chief Government Officer. Lately, I sat down along with her to ask in regards to the imaginative and prescient and methods she has for Cayaba, and I’d wish to share highlights from our dialog.
Selling Equitable Maternal Care
Dr. Ross: Inform us about your background and your curiosity in maternal well being.
Dr. Enekwechi: I’m a well being coverage and economics skilled by background. Along with working within the personal sector, I spent a few years in authorities, together with serving as head of well being applications for President Obama on the White Home Workplace of Administration and Finances. I’ve spent my profession ensuring sources are being spent and directed in ways in which finally make a distinction in folks’s well being and well-being.
In the case of maternal well being outcomes, I’ve stopped quoting statistics on how badly the US is doing. Suffice it to say, it’s shameful {that a} nation this rich is performing as poorly on this space as creating nations.
And among the most susceptible individuals are girls who appear to be me. Usually it doesn’t even matter what their earnings and training ranges are, so long as they’re Black or Brown.
Personally, I do know this battle from each perspective — by way of my direct expertise, my work, and my training. And I’m simply as terrified of those unhealthy outcomes as anyone else. So it’s an honor to have a chance to attempt to clear up this big challenge with Cayaba.
Dr. Ross: What are the challenges folks of coloration face in accessing equitable maternity care?
Dr. Enekwechi: Once you’re an individual of coloration, in some methods the well being care system is simply not geared up to listen to you. We name this implicit bias…however generally it’s not implicit, it’s simply plain bias. It’s specific.
Even Black girls physicians usually report being actively dismissed, ignored, and gaslit once they have well being points — although they really have the medical coaching to articulate what they’re experiencing in phrases that different suppliers perceive. So think about how it’s for somebody who doesn’t have the vocabulary to explain their well being issues!
Generally you simply want somebody to inform you that the whole lot goes to be okay. However Black girls inform me, “No person ever thinks to say that to me.”
Establishing Belief Is the “Secret Sauce”
Dr. Ross: How is Cayaba addressing these challenges?
Dr. Enekwechi: Efficient well being care finally comes right down to a few issues. It’s native, it’s based mostly on belief, and it’s based mostly on empathy.
That’s what Cayaba’s Maternity Navigators carry. They’re intentionally employed from the communities they serve. So our purchasers really feel like they’re speaking to somebody who hears them, can join with them, and, importantly, offers them company, helps them body their questions as they work together with their obstetrician.
However Cayaba supplies much more — like lactation consulting. Lately a person informed me, “After my spouse had her child, having a lactation guide wasn’t simply assist — it was a psychological well being intervention.” These new dad and mom based mostly their entire self-worth on having the ability to breastfeed their child. And since their child wasn’t in a position to latch on and wasn’t feeding, issues began to go awry fairly shortly. We had been fast to intervene earlier than issues bought worse, and it helped the dad in addition to the mother. Lactation assist meant the whole lot to them.
We additionally make sturdy medical tools very simply accessible, like breast pumps. The place acceptable, we equip our purchasers with blood strain cuffs, prepare them in utilizing them, present them the best way to file their readings. We educate them the best way to actually handle themselves in ways in which most of us might not be taught at dwelling.
Dr. Ross: How does Cayaba choose its employees?
Dr. Enekwechi: We rent folks from the neighborhood, medical assistants and neighborhood well being employees, and prepare them within the Cayaba Care mannequin. Our Maternity Navigators are all doula-certified — we facilitate that coaching. However we additionally display screen them for empathy. The folks we rent for these roles communicate the language of these they’re caring for, they perceive them.
The critiques we get from individuals who work with our Maternity Navigators say, “I trusted her. She trusted me. She held my hand. She was by no means condescending. She revered me.”
That’s what we carry. That’s our secret sauce.
Going The place the Want Is Biggest
Dr. Ross: How does Cayaba work with suppliers like obstetricians, midwives, and nurse practitioners?
Dr. Enekwechi: We’re in Philadelphia, the place many individuals giving delivery are at excessive danger for poor outcomes, and we discuss with well being care suppliers. Suppliers are our companions; they refer their sufferers, we share information with them, now we have an lively partnership with them. Supplier practices know their sufferers may use wrap-around providers and assist. We present them that we may help stop NICU visits, maternal morbidity and mortality, and preterm deliveries. We have now the info to again that up; now we have actual proof.
Our type of assist just isn’t one thing pregnant individuals are accustomed to as a result of it normally doesn’t exist. We’d like our suppliers to inform them, “Hey, discuss to Cayaba. Interact with them and see. This might be fairly helpful to you.”
Dr. Ross: What are your quick and long-term targets for Cayaba?
Dr. Enekwechi: I don’t need anybody who may be working with us to not be working with us. That’s my aim. There are too many ladies we all know, too many individuals and households, that will vastly profit from Cayaba’s assist. They usually deserve it. That’s my large aim, to serve all of the folks and households we must be supporting. I additionally wish to deepen and develop our partnership with IBX, and serve our members over a protracted time frame as a member of this neighborhood.
Unfold the Phrase
Well being outcomes are unacceptably poor for pregnant folks of coloration. That’s who’s on the at highest danger for poor outcomes. We strongly encourage them to benefit from this service, which is offered for free of charge to IBX members, in addition to our different maternal well being sources and providers.
If you happen to, or somebody , would possibly profit from this type of assist, please contact Cayaba. Everybody deserves the absolute best likelihood of a wholesome and profitable being pregnant, supply, and postpartum interval.