• “Best Babies Zone Basics: A Step-by-Step Guide,” December 2017
• “Black children disproportionately removed from their families; state lawmakers seek fix” 
• “Black doulas, midwives and reproductive health advocates step up in response to rising black maternal deaths – LA Times,” November 2017
• “Black Mothers Respond to Our Cover Story on Maternal Mortality - The New York Times” 
• “Black Mothers Keep Dying After Giving Birth. Shalon Irving's Story Explains Why” (August 2018)
• “Collaborative Approach Helps Minnesota Accelerate Improvement – The Improvement Quotient,” June 2017
• “Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network to Reduce Infant Mortality (IMCoIIN)-NICHQ, June 2017
• “Continuum of care for maternal, newborn, and child health: from slogan to service delivery,” October 20017
• “Dems turn black maternal deaths into powerful 2020 issue” (May 2019)
• “Doulas comfort mothers during pregnancy and childbirth - MSR News Online,” April 2017
• “Easing the Dangers of Childbirth for Black Women” (April 2018)
• “Governor Cuomo Builds on Efforts to Target Maternal Mortality and Reduce Racial Disparities in Health Outcomes (September 2018)
• “How culturally centered care could help mothers and babies”(April 2018)
• “I Was Pregnant and in Crisis. All the Doctors and Nurses Saw Was an Incompetent Black Woman” (March 2019)
• Legacy of Trauma: Context of the African American Existence, Brandon Jones M.A. Psychotherapist and Behavioral Health Consultant”
• “Levels of Maternal Care – American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,” February 2015
• “New York Governor Cuomo Should Not Play Politics With Black Maternal Health” (October 2018)
• “Prenatal to Age 3: A Comprehensive, Racially-Equitable Policy Plan for Universal Healthy Child Development-Wilder Research,” September 2016
• “Racism Is The Root, Sustaining Cause Of Black Infant Mortality” (November 2018)
• “Ramsey County Birth Equity Community Council,” February 2017
• “Reducing Unnecessary C-Section Births” (January 2016)
• “Setting the Standard for Holistic Care of and for Black Women” (April 2018): blackmamasmatter.org “An African-American Fraternity Alliance is Changing Infant Health Outcomes” (November 2018)
• “The quiet crisis among African Americans: Pregnancy and childbirth are killing women at inexplicable rates - LA Times,” November 2017
• “Tiered Care Centers Proposed for High-Risk Pregnancies”(January 2015)
• “Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis - The New York Times” 
• “Widowed father works with congresswoman on legislation to prevent maternal deaths” (March 2019)

• Best Babies Guide
• “How Racism Harms Pregnant Women – and What Can Help – Ted Talk”
• National Center for Trauma-Informed Care
• National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ)
• “Trauma Informed Service Delivery in the African American Community”
• African American Babies Coalition
• NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center
• Westside Midwives
• DIVA Moms of St.Paul

• ICHRP Presentation.pdf (.97MB)
• Operating Structure.pdf (2.4MB)

Disparities reduction: health disparities are differences in health outcomes and their causes among groups of people. Reducing health disparities is a major goal of public health. Achieving health equity, eliminating disparities, and improving the health of all U.S. population groups is one of the goals of Healthy People 2020 .

Cultural responsive approach to infant mortality: involves stress reduction for the mother, developing positive support networks for mothers, fathers, and other family members, co-parenting (no matter the relationship status), and early introduction to prenatal care.

Epigenetics: suggests that the experiences of previous generations affect who we are. For example, traumatic experiences can be passed down through the generations and even significantly affect the lives of grandchildren. A woman's diet during pregnancy seems to have a major impact on her baby's epigenetic tags. 

Historical trauma: is an example of intergenerational trauma. Family members who did not experience a trauma could feel the event generations later. It refers to the cumulative emotional and psychological factors in an individual or generation caused by a traumatic experience/s or event.

Institutional and structural racism/Institutional and structural bias: is built into the structure of society. A result of the structure and functioning of public institutions and public policies. Any arrangement or practice within a social institution or its related organizations that tend to favor one race or ethnic group over another. Structural racism understands and explores history to make sense of current inequities such as racial distribution of resources, politicized racial identities, individual experiences of racism, and policies, practices and ideas that support racism.

Toxic stress: is a term used by psychologists and developmental neurobiologists to describe the kinds of experiences, particularly in childhood, that can affect brain architecture and brain chemistry. They typically are experiences that are bad for an individual during development such as severe abuse. Toxic stress explains how certain lifestyle factors such as diet, stress and exercise can change the way a person’s genes are formed which ultimately impacts overall health, disease risk, etc.

Trauma Informed Care: is an organizational structure and treatment framework that involves understanding, recognizing, and responding to the effects of all types of trauma.