Perinatal Equity Initiative • 2019 – 2024 Results Personal Support
Background
The Personal Support interventions provide intensive one-on-one support to pregnant and parenting women and birthing people. Contractors emphasize building relationships with participating families and the key components of this process include advocacy, warm hand-offs to like-minded agencies and programs, and help in navigating common challenges associated with the perinatal journey.
Two local health jurisdictions (LHJs) selected Personal Support as an intervention for their community.
Both LHJs are implementing innovative models. Social support can positively influence maternal experiences for Black women and birthing people by reducing psychological distress, improving birth satisfaction and postpartum worry, and mitigating the experiences of obstetric racism.1
In collaboration with their communities, LHJs implementing Personal Support identified the following intended benefits:
- Empowered to be stronger advocates for themselves.
- Increased advocacy with their healthcare provider (i.e. asking questions, expressing their needs, etc.).
- Improved knowledge about the perinatal period (i.e. about labor/delivery options, baby care, knowledge of other topic areas).
- Application of strategies learned during the perinatal period (i.e. establishing contraception, safe sleep practices, kick count, stress-management techniques, pain management techniques, folic acid intake, etc.).
Successes
Combined enrollment in the programs increased over the years, from 94 participants and 146 sessions provided in fiscal year (FY) 2020-2021, to 151 participants and 926 sessions in FY 2022-23. There were 19 enrollees reported in FY 2023-2024, which was due to the expiration of contracts with the community-based organizations delivering services. Contracts have since been renewed. Most surveyed participants felt supported by their provider (88% or higher across intervention years), and most participants (80% or higher) reported experiencing the intended benefits of the Personal Support intervention.
Dashboard
Use the dropdown in the dashboard below to explore the Personal Support performance measures by fiscal year. Please see the footnotes to learn how many LHJs reported data (for at least one measure) for a given FY. Refer to dashboard instructions to learn more about how to use the dashboard.
It is recommended to use the Google Chrome browser to access these Excel files as they may not properly download when using Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge.
References
- Kyei G.K., Omeokwe F.P., Kwaning E.N., Banda E.L., Panyasarawut J., Ibrahim N., Kyei E.F. Mapping Social Support Networks for African American Women During Childbirth in the USA: A Systematic Scoping Review.
J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2025 Aug 8. doi: 10.1007/s40615-025-02594-4.