Celebrate Solutions: The Developing Families Center in Washington, DC

By: Mariko Rasmussen, Communications Specialist at Women Deliver

While my previous posts have focused on ‘solutions’ in the Global South, today we’re focusing on maternal health in the United States where it is getting more dangerous to be a pregnant woman. In 2007, the United States ranked 41 out of 171 countries for lifetime risk of death from pregnancy related causes. That means 40 countries had better maternal health outcomes than the U.S. In 2008, the United States dropped to 50, behind countries including: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Qatar, and Puerto Rico. Today, in the U.S., 1 in 2,100 women will die in pregnancy and childbirth.

There are huge rich-poor disparities in maternal health care between and within countries, with substantial inequalities in professional delivery care greater than for other forms of care. Discrimination profoundly affects a woman’s health. Black women are nearly four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. In the United States, one woman is working hard to change this trend in Washington, DC, where outcomes are the worst in the country. Ruth Watson Lubic is a nurse-midwife/anthropologist who founded the Family Health and Birth Center (FHBC) and the DC Developing Families Center (DFC), a collaboration of three service providers which sets health care in its social context. Since it’s opening in 2000, DFC has targeted families living in Wards 5 and 6 in the city’s northeast. The disadvantaged African American population being served has consistently had some of the city’s worst health outcomes, but the FHBC and DFC are working to make a difference in these families lives.

DFC promotes the empowerment of low-income families through the collaboration of three nonprofit service providers. Supported by Medicaid, FHBC provides prenatal care followed by birth either in the freestanding birth center or at Washington Hospital Center, and provides well-woman and well-childcare and immunizations to all age groups. The FHBC works to improve outcomes by reducing the incidence of pre-term births, low birth-weight babies and c-sections for a low-income population. The Healthy Babies Project provides a social supports and case management organization funded by Healthy Start, and the United Planning Organization’s Early Childhood Development Center provides infant and toddler care from 6 weeks to 3 years of age, partially funded by Early Head Start. This model of healthcare delivery integrates high quality maternal and pediatric care with social and educational services.

Watch this great video on the Family Health and Birth Center, part of the American Academy of Nursing’s series “A Nursing Life”:

Health Care in its Social Context from SternerTurner Media on Vimeo.

Learn more about the American Academy of Nursing here.
Learn more about the Family Health and Birth Center here.
Learn more about the Developing Families Center here.

Curious what the maternal mortality ratios (per 100,000 live births) are for each of the 50 states, and the nation’s capitol? See below or read the whole report from Amnesty here.

51 — Washington, DC (34.9 deaths per 100,000 live births)
50 — Georgia (20.5)
49 — New Mexico (16.9)
48 — Maryland (16.5)
47 — New York (16.0)
46 — Louisiana (15.9)
45 — Mississippi (15.2)
44 — Arkansas (14.6)
42 — Delaware, Michigan (13.6)
41 — Florida (13.1)
40 — Nebraska (12.6)
39 — Oklahoma (12.3)
38 — Tennessee (11.7)
37 — North Carolina (11.4)
35 — New Jersey, California (11.3)
34 — W. Virginia (11.2)
32 — South Carolina, Idaho (11.1)
31 — Colorado (11.0)
30 — North Dakota (10.7)
28 — Missouri, Montana (10.5)
26 — Nevada, New Hampshire (10.4)
25 — Alabama (9.6)
24 — Rhode Island (9.2)
23 — Illinois (9.1)
22 — Kentucky (8.8)
20 — Texas, Utah (8.6)
19 — Pennsylvania (8.5)
18 — Ohio (8.4)
17 — Virginia (8.0)
16 — Wyoming (7.8)
15 — Washington (7.5)
13 — Arizona, Wisconsin (7.2)
12 — Iowa (7.0)
10 — Oregon, South Dakota (6.2)
9 — Kansas (5.9)
8 — Connecticut (5.1)
7 — Alaska (5.0)
6 — Hawaii (4.7)
5 — Minnesota (3.7)
4 — Indiana (3.3)
3 — Massachusetts (2.7)
2 — Vermont (2.6)
1 — Maine (1.2)