What is the Health Literacy and Self- Advocacy Workshops? 

 

The Health Literacy and Self- Advocacy Workshops are for pregnant women/birthing people who are BIPOC (especially Black) and/or living on low incomes, and for others supporting them.

Information, resources, and tools to understand and monitor maternal and fetal health for mamas who, due to systemic oppression, are at higher risk of complications that could be fatal to their fetuses/infants or to them.  Self-advocacy skills to obtain vital care in healthcare environments where implicit bias and systemic racism may be at play, causing health dangers and contributing to NJ’s frightening racial disparities in maternal and infant mortality

Vu-An Foster, Founder and Executive Director of LA2L's will lead in-person and online webinars workshops based on her professional experience as a public health expert and her personal experience as a Black woman who suffered two preventable pregnancy losses largely due to systemic racism and would likely have died if she had not had the health literacy and advocacy skills.  She  will be teaching, which enabled her to secure life-saving treatment for preeclampsia after being turned away multiple times due to implicit bias.  to educate, raise awareness, and empower women and families throughout New Jersey with a strong focus on Black communities to decrease the impacts of structural racism and implicit bias.  Health literacy plays a crucial role in improving maternal child outcomes.  

 

The goal is to:

1. Educate and empower birthing people and families throughout New Jersey to make healthy decisions for themselves and their babies 

2. Increase the prevention of perinatal loss and pregnancy-related maternal deaths, especially for BIPOC women with high-risk pregnancies due to race and socioeconomic status disparities in New Jersey.  Health literacy plays a crucial role in improving maternal child outcomes.     

 

LA2L will use evidence-based practices and organizational performance monitoring.  LA2L  partners with other community-based organizations that offer direct support to women, families, and communities during pregnancy, labor, childbirth, and postpartum, as well as organizations that provide resources and educational materials.   

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LA2L's workshops and webinars will be structured around a theme and presented in a straightforward, constructive manner focused on moving forward for better maternal child health outcomes.

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Topics include: