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Driving Change in Maternal Health

Contributors: Priya Sarin Gupta, MD, MPH; Allison Bryant, MD, MPH
3 minute read

As part of its mission to reduce maternal health disparities, Mass General Brigham has deployed a fleet of community health vans to meet postpartum patients where they are. The program, called Mobile Postpartum Care Unit (MPCU), focuses on reducing complications in people who recently gave birth and are at high risk for complications during the postpartum period. The MPCU is part of the larger initiative, Driving Equity and Maternal Health (DREAMH), aimed at reducing maternal health disparities.

“It sort of reminds me of when you board the airplane, how they always say if you have a child and the [oxygen] masks drop, you should put yours on and then care for your child,” Priya Sarin Gupta, MD, MPH, medical director for clinical community programs at Mass General Brigham, told the Boston Globe. “We know that healthier moms will help their families and their babies.”

Maternal Health Disparities

The period after giving birth can be a critical time. Postpartum people are generally less likely to attend to their own health needs as they focus on their newborns. And people who have limited access to care and fewer resources are even less likely to attend important appointments that screen for problems.

This can put pregnant people at risk for life-threatening complications after childbirth. Potential complications include cardiac arrest, preeclampsia (high blood pressure and seizures), and sickle cell disease complications.

Black pregnant people in Massachusetts have higher rates of complications after childbirth than people of other races, according to a recent Boston Indicators report. Asian and Latina people also face rates of complications more than double the rates among white people.

Mass General Brigham has several initiatives working to reduce these types of health disparities, such as United Against Racism to address systemic health inequities, and the Birth Partners program to pair high-risk pregnant people with doulas, also part of the DREAMH initiative.

Driving Equity and Maternal Health

MPCU offers six free appointments to each participating postpartum person. The program also offers connections to mental health resources, housing, and financial support. So far, it has helped more than 40 people — with the goal of 100 by the time the first year is complete.

To be eligible to participate, postpartum people must:

  • Live within a five-mile radius of Mass General Hospital or Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s medical centers

  • Be at high risk for developing postpartum depression or other mood disorders

  • Have had high blood pressure or non-gestational diabetes during pregnancy

Smiling volunteers in front of a bright blue Community Care Van.

Community Health Vans

Mass General Brigham has deployed medically equipped community health vans to address other common conditions, including:

“Our overall work in our clinical community portfolio of work is really about how we bring our high quality, brick-and-mortar care closer to where individuals live, work, and play,” Allison Bryant, MD, MPH, associate chief health equity officer at Mass General Brigham, told the Globe.

Learn more about the Community Care Van

Mass General Brigham's mobile medical Community Care Vans bring mobile medical services, including screenings and interventions for chronic health issues like hypertension, diabetes, and substance use disorders, into the communities where our patients live.

Allison Bryant, MD, MPH

Contributor

Allison Bryant, MD, MPH
Associate Chief Health Equity Officer
Priya Sarin Gupta, MD, MPH

Contributor

Priya Sarin Gupta, MD, MPH
Medical Director for Clinical Community Programs