The ConnectRx Wisconsin program, a central component of Dane County’s Saving Our Babies Initiative, is celebrating its first anniversary.
Launched in April 2022, ConnectRx Wisconsin is a care coordination system designed to improve Black birth outcomes in Dane County.
The goal of the program is to reduce low birth weights for babies born to Black mothers by addressing and meeting their clinical and non-clinical needs, founding CEO & president of the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness, Lisa Peyton-Caire, said in an email statement.
According to Peyton-Caire, all Black pregnant people and birthing persons are screened for social determinants of health when they enter a local hospital or clinic.
“If a patient screens positive in one of the following social determinants of health—financial resource strain, food insecurity, housing stability, stress, or transportation—and they consent, a referral is made to ConnectRx Wisconsin,” Peyton-Caire said.
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According to Peyton-Caire, ConnectRx uses a wrap-around service delivery model that connects both clinical and trusted non-clinical community providers who work together to support patients’ health, social, economic, mental health and other resource needs.
Wisconsin, specifically Dane County, has had a decades-long public health crisis of Black birth disparities. These racial and birth disparities are a result of generations of inequitable systems, institutionalized racism and subsequent stress exerted on Black families, Peyton-Caire said.
According to the CDC, in 2021, the maternal mortality rate for Black women was 69.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, a rate 2.6 times higher than the rate for white women. Additionally, recent data from Public Health Madison and Dane County suggests 9 in 1,000 Black babies do not live to see their first birthday, and Black mothers are 2.6 times more likely to lose a baby before their first birthday than white mothers, Peyton-Caire said.
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According to The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness Saving Our Babies Report, there are 10 consistent themes as root causes for these disparities — racism, discrimination and institutional bias, bias and cultural disconnect in health-care delivery experiences, economic insecurity, poor access to health-supporting assets, housing insecurity and high cost of living, inadequate social supports, gaps in health literacy, education and support, chronic stress, systemic barriers to individual and family advancement and disconnected and hard-to-navigate community resources.
Since its launch in 2022, more than 400 Black women have been screened and connected to ConnectRx Wisconsin. Early results have also indicated that Black women patients participating in the program are experiencing fewer C-sections, more full-term births and higher infant birth weights as a result of doula-assisted births and partnerships between clinical providers, patients and the community, Peyton-Caire said.
“We hope to see infant and maternal mortality rates fall, significantly eliminating disparities in outcomes for Black women, birthing people and their babies,” Peyton-Caire said. “In time, we will become a best in the nation example of how community collaboration can improve conditions for all.”
