Supporting Montana Families During the Pandemic and Beyond

By December 24, 2020May 20th, 2021Uncategorized

Have you wondered what it would be like to be a baby born during the pandemic? How about a mother giving birth alone or nearly so? New parents and their babies are facing greater risks than ever.

Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies (HMHB-MT) knows the greatest impact of stress on the human brain is when still developing in the womb. And the first five years of life are critical, setting the foundation for a stable and healthy life. This pandemic has brought enormous amounts of stress to parents and other caretakers. Workplace changes, child care shortages and a loss of the natural web of social support. Nothing looks or feels familiar. Surveys of Montana parents during the COVID-19 pandemic tell us that parents are struggling to meet their children’s basic needs and provide them with safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments. Brain development of infants and young children can suffer without these supports.

Fortunately, we know that there are ways to help combat this added stress. HMHB-MT is providing families the support they are asking for during this time, just like we have been for the past 36 years. We use data from the parent surveys and state need assessments. We activate our state and local networks built by years of programming, advocacy and policy work for pregnant moms and families with young children. We apply best-practice solutions to complex social challenges to ensure that our work aligns with prevention science and protective factor research.

During this pandemic, HMHB-MT has leveraged resources to support resiliency in families. We launched the Safe Sleep Campaign with a message that parents still have the ability to keep their baby safe when asleep, even though so many other factors are out of their control. We helped meet basic needs by distributing essential items: cribs, car seats, diapers, wipes, formula, breast feeding supplies and more to every reservation and 24 counties. We continue to provide training on postpartum depression so moms will have access to care they need. HMHB-MT hosted its 3rd Annual Perinatal Mental Health Conference, virtually, in November with over 150 participants from across the state. And we helped advocate for an additional $50 million dollars of CARES act funding designated to help support childcare.

We find ourselves facing many great challenges. HMHB-MT is here to make sure that as a state we never lose sight of the fact that what happens today will impact our smallest citizens in the largest way. We all have an enormous responsibility to act with them in mind.

We hope you will join us and donate today to ensure that families have what they need to be resilient through this pandemic and beyond. Although our work and our lives may be stressful and look different, coming together to make a difference still looks the same. It is generations to come that are depending on us to get this right.

This opinion was signed by Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Montana Executive Director Brie MacLaurin, RN; board chair Kelly Minnehan-Galt; and board member David Lechner, M.D.

 

Opinion Column posted in the Helena IR December 24, 2020