MCH Student:

Ramya Palaniappan

Date of Defense:

May 13, 2020

Abstract:

 

The Minnesota Department of Health’s Center for Health Equity hosted the Black Birth Summit in September of 2019. The goal of this summit was to connect community leaders who are working on black infant mortality and to identify ways to work across sectors in order to better address the persistent racial inequities in infant mortality. Attendees shared successes and challenges of their work and then spent the afternoon outlining how a collaborative could move this work forward. While the need for working together and creating sustainable solutions that last beyond grant funding was clear, the need for healing was the primary takeaway from the summit. In order for those working on reducing racial inequities in infant mortality to properly do this work, healing needs to be a focus; healing both within the black community and between this community and other systems.