In 2022, Independence Blue Cross (IBX) started working with Cayaba Care to assist enhance maternal well being outcomes for our most at-risk members, significantly Black and Brown individuals. Cayaba supplies help for individuals throughout and after being pregnant, to assist them overcome a few of the challenges that improve their danger of maternal morbidity and mortality.
In 2024, Dr. Adaeze Enekwechi joined Cayaba as the corporate’s new Chief Govt Officer. Lately, I sat down together with her to ask in regards to the imaginative and prescient and methods she has for Cayaba, and I’d prefer 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 non-public sector, I spent a few years in authorities, together with serving as head of well being packages for President Obama on the White Home Workplace of Administration and Funds. I’ve spent my profession ensuring sources are being spent and directed in ways in which finally make a distinction in individuals’s well being and well-being.
Relating to maternal well being outcomes, I’ve stopped quoting statistics on how badly the United States is doing. Suffice it to say, it’s shameful {that a} nation this rich is performing as poorly on this space as growing international locations.
And a few of the most weak persons are ladies who appear to be me. Typically it doesn’t even matter what their revenue and training ranges are, so long as they’re Black or Brown.
Personally, I do know this wrestle from each perspective — by my direct experience, 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 concern with Cayaba.
Dr. Ross: What are the challenges individuals of shade face in accessing equitable maternity care?
Dr. Enekwechi: Whenever you’re an individual of shade, in some methods the well being care system is simply not geared up to listen to you. We name this implicit bias…however typically it’s not implicit, it’s simply plain bias. It’s specific.
Even Black ladies physicians typically report being actively dismissed, ignored, and gaslit after they have well being points — though 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 let you know that all the things goes to be okay. However Black ladies 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 convey. 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, provides 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 advised me, “After my spouse had her child, having a lactation guide wasn’t simply help — it was a psychological well being intervention.” These new dad and mom based mostly their complete self-worth on being able to breastfeed their baby. And since their child wasn’t in a position to latch on and wasn’t feeding, issues began to go awry fairly shortly. We have been fast to intervene earlier than issues obtained worse, and it helped the dad in addition to the mother. Lactation help meant all the things to them.
We additionally make sturdy medical tools very simply accessible, like breast pumps. The place applicable, we equip our purchasers with blood strain cuffs, practice them in utilizing them, present them how one can report their readings. We educate them how one can actually care for themselves in ways in which most of us could not be taught at residence.
Dr. Ross: How does Cayaba choose its workers?
Dr. Enekwechi: We rent individuals from the neighborhood, medical assistants and neighborhood well being staff, and practice them within the Cayaba Care mannequin. Our Maternity Navigators are all doula-certified — we facilitate that coaching. However we additionally display them for empathy. The individuals 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 convey. 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 knowledge with them, we now have an lively partnership with them. Supplier practices know their sufferers may use wrap-around providers and help. We present them that we might help stop NICU visits, maternal morbidity and mortality, and preterm deliveries. Now we have the information to again that up; we now have actual proof.
Our sort of help will not be one thing pregnant persons are accustomed to as a result of it often doesn’t exist. We’d like our suppliers to inform them, “Hey, discuss to Cayaba. Have interaction with them and see. This may very well 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 massively profit from Cayaba’s help. And so they deserve it. That’s my large aim, to serve all of the individuals and households we needs to be supporting. I additionally need to deepen and develop our partnership with IBX, and serve our members over an extended time frame as a member of this neighborhood.
Unfold the Phrase
Well being outcomes are unacceptably poor for pregnant individuals of shade. That’s who’s on the at highest danger for poor outcomes. We strongly encourage them to reap the benefits of this service, which is offered without charge to IBX members, in addition to our other maternal health resources and providers.
Should you, or somebody , may profit from this type of help, please contact Cayaba. Everybody deserves the very best likelihood of a wholesome and profitable being pregnant, supply, and postpartum interval.
