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Jun 24
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Lt. Governor Cooney, DPHHS announce Safe Sleep Initiative

By Uncategorized

Lt. Governor Cooney, DPHHS announce Safe Sleep Initiative

1500 Pack ’n Play cribs distributed; new educational materials created

Lt. Governor Mike Cooney, Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) Director Sheila Hogan, Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies-MT (HMHB-MT) Executive Director Brie Oliver, and several public and private partners announced today the launch of the Safe Sleep Initiative to promote safe sleep practices for all Montana babies.

“Montana’s children deserve the best start in life possible, and promoting safe sleep practices is crucial,” Lt. Gov. Cooney said. “This effort is designed to provide parents, grandparents and anyone in care of an infant with the best information possible when it comes to safe sleep.”

Lt. Gov. Cooney said the Initiative is the result of meetings with stakeholders from across the state and focus groups of Montana families. “Their insight into the current landscape of safe sleep information, real-life sleeping practices, and recommendations for public messaging were critical to creating a unique message for Montana,” he said.

The effort includes information on evidence-based safe sleep practices for infants and provides educational materials to families all across Montana through new materials provided through the Safe Sleep: Learn, Plan, and Provide education and media campaign materials. The campaign doesn’t ignore the realities of bedsharing and instead promotes open conversation and tips for reducing risks associated with unsafe sleeping situations. It also respects cultural differences in traditional sleep positions.

Focus groups and stakeholders agreed the public message should be focus on harm reduction methods of safe sleep. “The reality is, co-sleeping happens, and so this really examines how to promote safe sleep practices in the best possible way to give parents the information and tools they need to keep their children safe,” said DPHHS Director Sheila Hogan. “This approach to safe sleep aims to open the gates of honest communication between families and their providers, resulting in safer sleep and a reduction in infant deaths within sleep environments.”

In addition to the public messaging efforts, HMHB-MT has distributed 1500 cribs since December 2018 to Montana families in need of a safe place for their baby to sleep. The crib comes with education about safe sleep, a book, sleeper, and fitted sheet.

Oliver said many times these cribs are delivered to the home by a public health home visitor, which is an added level of support and often leads to helping families access other supports during this vulnerable time.

“It’s important that we support and provide new parents with the materials and information they need to be successful, and to ensure all children are given the best start in life,” Oliver said.

The Pack ’n Play cribs were purchased with public and private funds from DPHHS, Montana Children’s Trust Fund, and HMHB-MT.

Oliver is encouraging other interested organizations to join the cause. “We are thankful to all those who have made generous contributions to this effort,” she said. “It’s amazing to know there’s so much support for Montana families, and we hope to continue this effort. It’s our goal to have more partners join the Safe Sleep Initiative to give infants a safe and healthy start.”

Safe Sleep is the third pillar under the DPHHS overarching First Years Initiative that was launched three years ago. The initiative was born after analysis showed children under two comprised most child deaths in Montana, and the majority of those fatalities involved infants in unsafe sleep environments.

The First Years Initiative focuses on providing targeted resources, education, and services during the early, critical period in the lives of children and their parents—pregnancy, the weeks and months after birth, and extending through the first years of a child’s life.

Oliver said her organization already distributes the Pack ’n Plays year-round on a limited basis. However, she noted this new funding quadrupled their current efforts. For HMHB-MT, the initiative spotlights a very important issue. “This is a significant investment in the lives of newborns all across Montana,”she said. “This is not just a basic need item, but a crucial one. It not only increases safe sleep, but also leads to better family outcomes.”

The 1500 cribs have been distributed to various locations throughout Montana, including local Child and Family Services Division, Women, Infants and Children (WIC) clinics, Tribal health programs, home visiting locations, American Indian reservations and other partner organizations. The cribs were distributed with other safe sleep materials, at no cost to families in need, through referrals made to local public health departments or early childhood specialists.

Oliver noted that cribs are proven to provide a safe sleep environment for infants. She said that by providing them at no cost removes a barrier for many new parents, plus they’re portable. “They can easily be transported, so where a baby goes, the crib can follow,” she said. “This is especially convenient when friends or family are caring for a child but may not own one themselves.”

Organizations or individuals interested in partnering with the Safe Sleep Initiative are encouraged to contact Stephanie Morton, Program Manager at HMHB-MT, (Stephanie@hmhb-mt.org) or call the office at (406) 449-8611. HMHB-MT also maintains a list of locations where cribs are available.

 

Date: June 24, 2020
Contact: Jon Ebelt, Public Information Officer, DPHHS, (406) 444-0936, (406) 461-3757, jebelt@mt.gov

Chuck Council, Communications Specialist, DPHHS, (406) 444-4391, (406) 461-8367, hcouncil@mt.gov

Feb 26
Love1
Image of rainbow colored thread going through the eye of a needle

Mother Love Happenings

By Uncategorized

For months, Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Executive Director, Brie Oliver, would come into her office, sit down at her desk, prepare to dive into work for the day and glance up at her whiteboard. The words ‘Mother Love’ stared back at her, giving a little wink as if to say, “hey, I’m still here waiting to get off of this whiteboard and out into the world…” Brie nodded back not knowing exactly how to make that happen but patiently knowing it would, when the time was right.

Then, one day, it did. Through the magic of a few aligned circumstances, Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies of MT was awarded a mini-grant by the Maternal Mental Health Task force of the Greater Helena Area Early Childhood Coalition. Suddenly, HMHB was given the means to focus time, energy and passion into launching Mother Love, a safe space for families to connect, share stories, creatively express their experiences (both struggles and triumphs) and, ultimately, to heal and thrive in community.

So far, Mother Love has launched a podcast and hosted two healing arts events at The Holter Museum of Art in the heart of downtown Helena, Montana. Although things are still just getting off the ground, Mother Love has already begun to work its magic, helping moms and families reflect on their experiences and work through sticking points together.

At the two February Mother Love Stitch & Story events, moms from all different ages and backgrounds gathered together to work on their own simple embroidery projects, stitching the words, ‘You are enough’ into colorful fabrics that will remind them of this important idea in their daily lives. One stitch at a time, a circle of women sat and listened attentively while they took turns sharing birth stories, self-care challenges, sibling rivalry woes and chuckling about the silly things people sometimes say to new moms. They touched on ways their babies had transformed them, taught them how to be calm, patient and resilient and how to surrender and go with the flow even when it seems impossible to do so. At times, stitches got tangled and moms got stuck in their embroidery flow. When this happened, another mom was quick to offer help untangling knots and smoothing the threaded mess, like moms do.

On the first episode of the podcast, Trista Vonada, a local social worker and mental health professional bravely shared her story of postpartum depression. If you’d care to have a listen, click here. This podcast will be an ongoing project and the conversations and content will vary but will mostly focus on birth stories, maternal mental health, the transition into motherhood and what it is really like to create and maintain a healthy family.

We are so grateful to have the opportunity to introduce Mother Love to the world and to reach more Montana moms and families in these new ways. If you’re interested in learning more about HMHB and donating to the organization, please visit our website at www.hmhb-mt.org.

 

Dec 19
Love1

The Importance of Being Seen

By Parenting, Self-care, Self-compassion, Uncategorized

Yesterday morning, my good friend (and fellow mama) was recapping her morning. She exuberantly recounted all that had taken place in the past 12ish hours: last minute book report that required modeling clay and her participation in molding said modeling clay into a character’s face, strategically relocating the elf on the shelf, playing the role of tooth fairy, letting the dog out several times in the night due to a canine tummy bug, getting her daughter to school early for student council and making an extra trip to the grocery store to supply holiday treats for a class event. As I listened to her run through this very normal but highly stressful list, I felt deep compassion and empathetic anxiety for her. I felt my chest seize up and my breath go shallow. I thought to myself, Dang, that’s a whole lot to handle before even coming to work for the day. And I was so glad to be the one to listen and breathe and laugh with her about just how ridiculously overwhelming it all can be. If I hadn’t been there to see and hear her, all of this would have gone completely unrecognized. It would just have melted into the giant, steaming cauldron of stuff moms do behind the scenes. And she would have done what we do – she would have mustered up the strength and stamina from that deep mama reservoir and kept on truckin’. By the way, she forgot to leave the tooth money under the pillow and had to get very creative in the midst of all of this in order to redeem the tooth fairy’s reputation. Because, you know, she didn’t already have enough on her plate.

So, when there’s so much going on in parenting land, a good friend is good medicine. Pour out the crazy that might be trapped inside. Drink a glass of water while looking out the window. Find a deeper breath or two. Laugh or cry. Express the hard, not just the good. And, if you don’t have access to a compassionate ear you may have to try to be that for yourself. Take stock of all you’ve managed and navigated in the past little chunk of time and give yourself the gift of recognition. Give yourself your own, dang that’s a lot. You deserve it.

Claire Larson is the Program and Communications Assistant at Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies: The Montana Coalition which is dedicated to improving the health, safety and well-being of Montana families by supporting mothers and babies, age zero to three. (Featured image captured by Michelle Gustafson.)

Dec 17
Love1

Linking Infants and Families to Supports (LIFTS)

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With funding from Blue Cross, Blue Shield, HMHB has been working on many fronts in improving healthcare for those experiencing perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) in Montana.  Work continued on developing the Perinatal Screening Protocol for Primary Care Providers and a complete draft including the algorithm and narrative were presented in early December. We plan to have a final draft in December after a few finishing touches and be able to distribute the final product in 2019.

In addition to that working group, Melissa Bangs is wrapping up her work with community-based perinatal support coalitions in Missoula, Helena and the Flathead.  Currently, these groups are working to find permanent homes and facilitators within their communities to ensure their long-term success.  Coalitions are determining their own work plans, which include goals such as maternal mental health public awareness campaigns, education for providers and resource and referral guides.

On October 20 and 21st, HMHB in collaboration with the Clinical Psychology Department at the University of Montana, hosted The Perinatal Mental Health Conference at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort.  This two-day intensive workshop will bring in national experts to help professionals working with folks in the perinatal period to identify, diagnose and treat PMADs.  Over 200 folks working in the perinatal space attended and evaluations show they were overall pleased with the conference and are eager for more training.

Dec 17
Love1

Safe Sleep for Baby

By Uncategorized

HMHB has a long running program called SafeSleep for Baby which provides Pack ‘n’ Play Playards and safe sleep materials at no cost to families in need. When a family is identified, local public health departments or early childhood specialists make a referral to the program and Terry places the order for the Safe Sleep Kit.  This program provides approximately 130 cribs per year to Montana families in need of a safe sleeping environment for their babies.           

A recent partnership between DPHHS Family and Community Health Division, The Montana Children’s Trust Fund and the Montana Department of Justice will allow HMHB to send greatly expand the number of kits distributed.  This will also allow sites to store safe sleep kits on site, removing the timing lag between identifying the need for a safer sleep environment and orders being fulfilled and shipped.  In November HMHB surveyed a broad array of possible recipients including Child and Family Services, public health departments and home visitors.  Responses to the survey have been very enthusiastic and we are shooting to order 250 cribs by the end of the year!

Dec 17
Love1

Building Bridges for Better Births Year 2 (B4)

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In August 2018, HMHB was awarded a second year of funding from the Montana Healthcare Foundation (MHCF) to assist in building community connections to support MHCF’s Perinatal Substance Use Disorder (SUDs) Initiative.  Grantees of the initiative will be integrating behavioral health (IBH) services into OB/GYN care across the state. These efforts to improve perinatal behavioral health care got a shot in the arm in November when DPHHS received a $3.2 million dollar HRSA grant that will expand current grantee sites across the state.   HMHB is delighted to continue these efforts at new sites. More info found at: https://mthcf.org/2018/11/press-release-announcing-perinatal-behavioral-health-initiative/

Jul 29
Love1

Independent Record’s 20 Under 40 – Brie Oliver: Executive director, Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition

By Uncategorized

Research professor Brené Brown said, “We don’t have to do all of it alone. We were never meant to.”

Brie Oliver, executive director for Montana’s Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB), reiterates the same message daily to mothers in the Helena community.

A Helena native, 37-year-old Oliver pursued a nursing degree from Montana State University. During her clinicals, Oliver observed the epidemic of chronic health care needs. She decided then and there that she wanted her future work to focus on preventative health care. More specifically, she sought to apply a “multi-generational approach” by focusing on achieving healthy pregnancies for moms and healthy early childhoods for babies.

Since stepping up as director, Oliver admits learning a lot and broadening her scope into the larger statewide system.

“I became aware of the system problems in the community that kept families from being successful,” said Oliver.

While she has only been in the director role for about a year, Oliver has been hard at work. From advocating for the health and wellbeing of children and mothers, facilitating statewide conversations to improve resources and support systems and securing funds to make those resources a reality, she’s left her mark on the community.

“She is adept at bringing people to the table to facilitate how we can uplift the most vulnerable in our community,” said Sarah Crowley, home visiting program supervisor for Lewis and Clark County.

“She is a fierce advocate for family wellness and is a shining light of hope for families in need,” said Katie Bevan, a home visiting nurse for Lewis and Clark County.

According to Trina Filan, community impact coordinator for United Way, Oliver was responsible for the founding of the Home Visiting Task Force and Maternal Mental Health Task Force. Oliver has also worked to coordinate opportunities for early childhood coalitions across Montana to join efforts for shared funding, expertise and advocacy.

For Oliver, the reality of her accomplishments thus far comes down simply to building relationships — among experts in the field, and between mothers bringing new life into the world.

“By building a community of mothers who have themselves experienced postpartum depression and connecting them with supportive resources, we are taking the layers of shame and blame off,” said Oliver. “I want to make sure the next mom is nurtured and supported in a way that allows her to know that she will get better.”

“We all come into motherhood at different places of support and resources,” shared Oliver. “There’s always room to learn from each other.”

Written by LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record

Photo by Thom Bridge