PITTSBURGH, PA | ARTURO PINEDA | July 4, 2017
Original article can be found: http://www.post-gazette.com
Maria, a Guatemalan immigrant now living in Pittsburgh, was late into her pregnancy when she started having abdominal pains. She called her neighbor, who told her the pain was normal and to get some rest. The next day, Maria found out she had lost her baby.
That troubling story soon may be a problem of the past after the new Latino Community Center last week won the Women’s Health Activist Movement’s Big Idea Challenge with proposals to better reach Latina women in underserved neighborhoods with perinatal and childbirth information and support.
Maria’s scenario was presented by Graciela Sarabia, a volunteer at the Latino Community Center, to an eight-member panel for what’s known as WHAMGlobal, which was created by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. As winner from among eight finalists, the center was awarded $10,000 to implement the idea.?
“Maria is not alone,” Ms. Sarabia emphasized. “There are hundreds of Marias going through the exact same thing.”
The center’s idea is to recruit and train women to be community liaisons in different neighborhoods. Liaisons would have access to educational resources in Spanish about prenatal and birthing care. The liaison would also facilitate postpartum support groups.
The liaison program would eliminate common barriers faced by Latina women such as isolation, a lack of transportation, language barrier, lack of health care and documentation status.
Ms. Sarabia cited anecdotes from the center’s current programming that indicates the liaison program will be effective. She said that an overwhelming percentage of Latina women breast-fed their children, but when they saw many Americans using formula, they switched. The center held classes on breast-feeding to learn why.
“The women believed they were doing something wrong. People around them were using formula and not breast-feeding,” Ms. Sarabia said. “We told them breast-feeding was just as healthy, and 100 percent of women returned to breast-feeding instead of formula.”
This community center is not to be confused with the Latino Family Center in Hazelwood, which is overseen by the Allegheny Intermediate Unit. The community center does not yet have a location nor a website, but it is pursuing procedures to become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Karen Feinstein, a co-founder of the women’s movement and president and CEO of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, explained why she initially helped found the women’s movement. She cites an article by Amanda Hess, a reporter for The New York Times, as being crucial in the development. The article, “How a Fractious Women’s Movement Came to Lead the Left,” discussed the future of women’s unity and if women would be able to rally under one shared cause.
“I took that as a challenge for the organization,” Mrs. Feinstein said. “I wanted to show that women can come together and support a cause that is important to all of us. Our mission is to advance health care in Western Pennsylvania but also the role of women in health care.”
In 2016, The U.S. Bureau of Labor found that nearly 80 percent of workers in the health care and social assistance field were women, yet women made up only about 40 percent of all executives. Mrs. Feinstein believes that in order to have better health care, there needs to be better representation in the boardroom.
She also pointed out the distinction between equality and equity in health care.
“Equality means a one to one,” she said. “If men have one center, women have one center. Equity means that the programs in place are fair and just. Some programs will serve more women because women need more help, and that’s fair.”
Mrs. Feinstein was delighted with the winner. She looks forward to having a new partner in the movement and helping improve the quality of health care in the Latino community.
Rosamaria Cristello, executive director of the center, believes the win is a sign of support from the community.
“We didn’t think we would win,” she said. “But this win shows that there is a lot of the support from different communities for the work we are doing, and the work we want to do in the future.”
For more information about Women’s Health Activist Movement visit, https://www.whamglobal.org/.
Arturo Pineda: apineda@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1448
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