It takes a Village: The Maternal Wellness Village

There is a fundamental need for multilevel interventions emerging from the lived- experience and expertise of Black women that provide support from early pregnancy through the end of the first postpartum year. To remedy this treatment gap, the multidisciplinary team of researchers and clinicians at Temple University has partnered with Oshun Family Center/Maternal Wellness Village, a group of Philadelphia-based Black birth workers, in order to develop an innovative, theory and evidence-based intervention that 1) uses telehealth platforms to provide Black birthing persons with racially-concordant community doula care, wraparound mental health and lactation support before, during, and after birth; 2) employs empirically supported peripartum lifestyle interventions delivered through mobile technologies to reduce cardiovascular risk factors, and 3) addresses structural racism and respectful maternity care through anti-racism and trauma-informed training of frontline providers and staff.