Recruiting Denver/Boulder BIPOC people with hypertension who are less than 10 months postpartum or are pregnant and giving birth before March 18, 2024.

LONGMONT, COLORADO, UNITED STATES, January 30, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Abundance Project, a 501(c)3 organization based in Boulder County, Colorado, is one of nine nationwide non-profits awarded a $150,000 grant prize from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) that will study the impact of postpartum doula care on reducing hypertension and symptoms of anxiety and depression in postpartum mothers who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color (BIPOC).

The Abundance Project and its doula care provider, Sanctuary Doulas + Family Care are currently recruiting Black, Indigenous, Asian, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Latina and/or Hispanic mothers with hypertension, commonly known as high blood pressure, who are less than 10 months postpartum or are currently pregnant and are giving birth before March 18, 2024, and live in the Denver/Boulder metro area.

Eligibility forms in both English and Spanish can be found at www.the-abundance-project.org/research. BIPOC mothers with high blood pressure may be eligible to receive postpartum doula visits in their homes from English and Spanish-speaking postpartum doulas at no cost and receive up to $100 in Visa gift cards for participation.

Maternal health service agencies and providers who serve BIPOC mothers in the Denver/Boulder metro area can participate in any or all of four ways by contacting Michele Holland, one of the study’s co-principal investigators at the.abundance.project.nihgrant@gmail.com:

1) referring BIPOC mothers with hypertension to the research study’s online English and Spanish Eligibility Forms at www.the-abundance-project.org/research.

2) requesting printed fliers with Eligibility Form QR codes and easy pull tabs for their patients’ waiting areas and treatment rooms.

3) accepting a 15-minute looping informational research study presentation with complimentary lunch served on site for up to 15 staff courtesy of The Abundance Project.

4) permitting on site study recruitment in their facilities' common areas for patients by research study staff to provide information, assist with completing online English and Spanish Eligibility Forms, and answer questions about the study.

Sanctuary Doulas + Family Care’s team of postpartum doulas are professionally trained, non-medical care providers who have advanced training in diversity, equity and inclusion in preparation for providing postpartum doula care home visits for the study's intervention group (35-40 BIPOC mothers) through May 2024.

Research study co-principal investigators include Sanctuary Doulas + Family Care owners Jess Hanlin, LCSW and Ali Batwin, CLC, Dr. Elizabeth Greenwell, ScD, Director of Maternal and Child Health and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health at the Colorado School of Public Health, and Laurel Hicks, PhD, Research Associate with the University of Colorado - Boulder’s Renee Crown Wellness Institute.

The Abundance Project’s research project is titled “Postpartum Doula Care Reduces BIPOC Mothers’ Hypertension, Depression, and Anxiety.”. While the study is focused on examining the impact of postpartum doula care on these specific factors, thehe team will also assess the feasibility and acceptability of postpartum doula care - a professional, non-medical, evidence-based intervention in improving health outcomes.

Rates of maternity-related complications and deaths in the United States are high, and the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in these maternal health outcomes are even more stark. Community engagement in research is essential to developing effective strategies to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality and to ensure that the specific priorities of diverse and disproportionately affected populations are addressed.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is sponsoring this research challenge as part of NIH’s Implementing a Maternal health and PRegnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone (IMPROVE) Initiative.

The Abundance Project is proud to be one of nine nationwide non-profit organizations chosen to participate in the final phase of the IMPROVE Initiative - a $3 million prize competition to incentivize non-profit organizations to develop the capabilities, infrastructure, and experience to conduct research projects that seek to improve maternal health outcomes in their communities.

During this final challenge phase, The Abundance Project, in partnership with Sanctuary Doulas + Family Care, will conduct the proposed research, and report our research study results in June 2024. NIH’s IMPROVE Initiative will announce final winners in September 2024 for further prize funding.

For more information about this research project and how to participate, please visit www.the-abundance-project.org/research or contact Michele Holland at the.abundance.project.nihgrant@gmail.com. The NIH’s full press release “NIH Selects Next Round of Winners at the Connecting the Community for Maternal Health Challenge” is available at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/newsroom/news/062223-community-challenge-IMPROVE.

Michele Holland
The Abundance Project
+1 303-570-7942
the.abundance.project.nihgrant@gmail.com
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