Improving Maternal and Young Child Health
bi3’s Jill Miller and Cradle Cincinnati’s Dr. Meredith Smith collaborate on new book
Infant Mortality and Other Wicked Problems sheds light on how Greater Cincinnati took collective action to address one of its most pressing public health challenges: infant mortality.
Over the past decade, the collaborative efforts outlined in the book have led to Hamilton County achieving its lowest infant mortality rate on record. The book builds on these successes, laying out a blueprint for addressing complex health and social issues with actionable insights for community leaders, policymakers, and health professionals nationwide.
By sharing Greater Cincinnati’s success and lessons learned, co-authors Jill Miller and Dr. Meredith Smith hope to save more lives and inspire other communities to tackle their own wicked problems.
Cradle Cincinnati featured on PBS
Recently, PBS NewsHour featured our community’s efforts to reduce infant mortality, showcasing the power of Queens Village and engaging those with lived experience—a key tactic outlined in Infant Mortality and Other Wicked Problems.
Grantee Spotlight
Mama Certified celebrates one year
The key to addressing wicked problems like infant mortality is co-designing solutions with those closest to the problems. The women of Queens Village wanted more information about birthing hospitals so they could make informed decisions about where they wanted to deliver their babies.
Fueled by a $500,000 bi3 Fund grant to The Health Collaborative and Cradle Cincinnati, Mama Certified launched last year to provide parents-to-be with a way to assess and understand maternal equity-related efforts of our local birthing hospitals. Mama Certified collects data from partner hospitals—The Christ Hospital Health Network, Mercy Health, TriHealth, and UC Health—to assess them on their maternal and infant health-related efforts. Hospitals are awarded badges that they can display in their hospitals. The process by which hospitals are evaluated is created by Black women for Black women.
In the past year:
- Eight birthing hospitals committed to advancing maternal health equity by becoming members of Mama Certified.
- Mama Certified awarded 16 infant and maternal care badges to hospital members.
- More than 1,500 Greater Cincinnati hospital staff received Mama Certified training.
- 242 post-partum mothers provided feedback on their birthing experience.
- Four different Queens Village Hospital Advisory Boards launched, bringing community members and hospital leadership together to improve the hospital birthing experience.
For more updates on the work of bi3 and our funded partners, be sure to follow us on social media!
