In 2022, Independence Blue Cross (IBX) started working with Cayaba Care to assist enhance maternal well being outcomes for our most at-risk members, notably Black and Brown folks. Cayaba supplies help for folks throughout and after being pregnant, to assist them overcome among the challenges that enhance their danger of maternal morbidity and mortality.
In 2024, Dr. Adaeze Enekwechi joined Cayaba as the corporate’s new Chief Government Officer. Just lately, I sat down along with her to ask concerning the imaginative and prescient and techniques 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 Price range. I’ve spent my profession ensuring assets are being spent and directed in ways in which finally make a distinction in folks’s well being and well-being.
In the case of maternal well being outcomes, I’ve stopped quoting statistics on how badly the US is doing. Suffice it to say, it’s shameful {that a} nation this rich is performing as poorly on this space as growing nations.
And among the most weak individuals are ladies who appear like me. Usually it doesn’t even matter what their revenue and schooling ranges are, so long as they’re Black or Brown.
Personally, I do know this battle from each perspective — via my direct expertise, my work, and my schooling. 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 remedy this large situation with Cayaba.
Dr. Ross: What are the challenges folks 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 outfitted to listen to you. We name this implicit bias…however typically it’s not implicit, it’s simply plain bias. It’s express.
Even Black ladies physicians typically report being actively dismissed, ignored, and gaslit once they have well being points — regardless that 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 inform you that every thing 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 carry. 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. Just lately a person advised me, “After my spouse had her child, having a lactation advisor wasn’t simply help — it was a psychological well being intervention.” These new dad and mom based mostly their entire self-worth on with the ability to breastfeed their child. 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 acquired worse, and it helped the dad in addition to the mother. Lactation help meant every thing to them.
We additionally make sturdy medical tools very simply accessible, like breast pumps. The place applicable, we equip our purchasers with blood stress cuffs, practice them in utilizing them, present them how you can file their readings. We educate them how you can actually care for themselves in ways in which most of us could not study at dwelling.
Dr. Ross: How does Cayaba choose its employees?
Dr. Enekwechi: We rent folks from the group, medical assistants and group well being employees, and practice them within the Cayaba Care mannequin. Our Maternity Navigators are all doula-certified — we facilitate that coaching. However we additionally display screen them for empathy. The folks we rent for these roles communicate the language of these they’re caring for, they perceive them.
The evaluations 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 carry. That’s our secret sauce.
Going The place the Want Is Best
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 speak with well being care suppliers. Suppliers are our companions; they refer their sufferers, we share information with them, we have now an energetic partnership with them. Supplier practices know their sufferers might use wrap-around providers and help. We present them that we can assist forestall NICU visits, maternal morbidity and mortality, and preterm deliveries. We’ve the information to again that up; we have now actual proof.
Our sort of help will not be one thing pregnant individuals are accustomed to as a result of it normally doesn’t exist. We’d like our suppliers to inform them, “Hey, speak to Cayaba. Have interaction with them and see. This could possibly be fairly helpful to you.”
Dr. Ross: What are your fast and long-term objectives for Cayaba?
Dr. Enekwechi: I don’t need anybody who might be working with us to not be working with us. That’s my objective. There are too many ladies we all know, too many individuals and households, that may vastly profit from Cayaba’s help. They usually deserve it. That’s my large objective, to serve all of the folks and households we must be supporting. I additionally wish to deepen and develop our partnership with IBX, and serve our members over an extended time frame as a member of this group.
Unfold the Phrase
Well being outcomes are unacceptably poor for pregnant folks of shade. That’s who’s on the at highest danger for poor outcomes. We strongly encourage them to benefit from this service, which is accessible for free of charge to IBX members, in addition to our different maternal well being assets and providers.
If you happen to, or somebody you recognize, may profit from this sort of help, please contact Cayaba. Everybody deserves the very best likelihood of a wholesome and profitable being pregnant, supply, and postpartum interval.