G-2408-22003

Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Georgia (HMHBGA) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve maternal and infant health through collective advocacy, education, and access to vital resources across Georgia’s 159 counties. Focusing on the full spectrum of maternal and infant health, HMHBGA’s work includes bolstering the workforce and addressing systematic barriers to ensure that every mother, birthing person, and child has access to resources for a healthier life. For the past 40 years, the organization has worked to improve access to prenatal and preventive healthcare for thousands of women, children, and families in Georgia.

Recognizing a strong association between poor oral health and adverse pregnancy outcomes, the HMHBGA sought to highlight how disparities in oral health care access persist in Georgia, particularly among women covered by Medicaid. As a critical issue for Georgia given the state’s high maternal mortality and morbidity rate, the HMHBGA Working Group was developed in 2021 to increase access to oral healthcare for pregnant Georgians covered by Medicaid. Over the last two years, the group has engaged and recruited pregnant and postpartum persons across Georgia to expand understanding of maternal oral health access.

Under the working group’s current project, "Examining Access to Oral Care for Moms and Birthing People Across Georgia", HMHBGA took a unique approach with its inclusion of perinatal persons as primary stakeholders, which in previous studies has provided an incomplete picture of the barriers experienced by this priority population. The findings helped to determine two key solutions through this research: 1) Integration of Oral Health Education and 2) Incorporation of Oral Care into Perinatal Care Settings.

HMHBGA’s proposal builds on this groundwork through the development of an Oral Health and Pregnancy Awareness campaign to highlight these findings. The work will begin with leveraging the community trust of their working group to collect, record, and share stories, videos, and photos from pregnant/postpartum people regarding experiences with oral health access and maintenance during their pregnancy. Ultimately, HMHBGA and the Oral Health Working Group aim to integrate a story telling component with the Maternal and Child Health Data Hub, a platform that collates, analyzes, and visualizes crucial data related to maternal and child health.

The recommended amount totals $70,000. Of that amount, approximately 50% of the funds will be allocated towards a Research Manager and Communications Coordinator with significant matching support. The remaining portion of the budget will be used to cover Incentives for working group members and story participants. This request represents 2% of the organization’s operating budget.