Ciara, Kelly Rowland, and more lend a hand for Baby2Baby’s latest initiative targeting maternal mental health

Ahead of Mother’s Day, Baby2Baby ambassadors Kelly Rowland and Ciara opened up about what the initiative means to them.

Baby2Baby, a national nonprofit that has been providing essential items to children living in poverty for 13 years, is expanding its mission in ways that aim to combat the maternal mortality rate in the United States, with the help of musicians and mamas Ciara Wilson and Kelly Rowland.

According to a release sent to theGrio, the Baby2Baby ambassadors visited the nonprofit’s headquarters in Los Angeles this week ahead of Mother’s Day to help pack maternal health and newborn supply kits for mothers and babies in need. Wilson and Rowland joined actress-director Olivia Wilde, the nonprofit’s co-CEOs Kelly Sawyer Patricof and Norah Weinstein, and HHS deputy chief of staff Angela Ramirez.

“We’re thrilled to announce the expansion of Baby2Baby’s initiative to combat maternal mortality,” Weinstein and Sawyer Patricof said in the release. “This generous grant from Huggies will allow us to deliver essential supplies to new moms immediately after giving birth across ten states.”

They added, “Not being able to afford basic essentials for your newborn takes a profound toll on a mother’s mental health, and that is why these kits are so critical, not just for the baby, but for the mother too.”

Per the release, Baby2Baby is funding this new initiative after receiving a multimillion-dollar grant from Huggies, the diaper and baby supply brand. The kits, distributed across 10 states, contain necessary items for the health and well-being of both mother and baby, including diapers, hygiene products, breastfeeding supplies, postpartum care, and educational resources. The goal of the program is to address the mental health struggles of new mothers who cannot afford the critical items their babies desperately need.

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This initiative is especially timely, considering maternal mental health has been determined to be one of the top causes of maternal mortality, which disproportionately impacts Black mothers. Presently, while America’s maternal mortality rate is 22.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, Black mothers are 2.6 times more likely to die either while giving birth or from complications within the first two years after giving birth.

Last year, after the Biden administration selected Baby2Baby to pilot a program in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services to combat the maternal mortality crisis, the organization launched the initiative in three states among the highest in maternal mortality and child poverty rates: Louisiana, Arkansas, and New Mexico. States being added to the initiative include California, New York, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia.

While visiting Baby2Baby headquarters, Rowland and Wilson also participated in a brief panel discussion about the initiative.

Rowland, a mom of two sons, thanked the nonprofit’s CEOs as well as Huggies, saying, “Baby2Baby’s initiative to combat maternal mortality is deeply personal to me as Black mothers are more than three to four times likely to die after childbirth. It is so infuriating and incredibly heartbreaking. We should live in a world where no mother is left to fall through the cracks of a broken maternal health care system.”

While packing the kits, Rowland noted, she thought of the mothers who would receive the vital supplies during what is often a very “vulnerable” and “scary” time.

She continued, “Not having to worry about how you’re going to diaper your baby is really a gift. While we can’t solve the maternal mortality crisis on our own here today, this initiative is one important piece of a very complicated and necessary solution to improve mothers’ mental health, a leading cause of maternal mortality, by providing the basic essentials they absolutely need during the most critical time after birth.”

Wilson, a mom of four, said she remembered what it felt like to have her first child and how lucky she was to be surrounded by a support system to answer all of the many questions new moms have.

“I was very fortunate to have a great support system along the way,” she noted. “But I’ve also learned so much about how a lot of women aren’t getting the same kind of care that I was able to have. So, that’s why maternal health is so important to me. The devastating increase in maternal mortality in the U.S. is honestly so crushing to me as a woman of color. Around the world, women are dying from preventable complications before, during and after childbirth.”

She added, “Today is a step in the right direction towards addressing this crisis.”

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