Maternal & Infant Health Equity

Health equity is the state where everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve their best health outcomes. Attaining this state requires recognizing and addressing the systemic social barriers and circumstances that hinder health outcomes, known as health inequities.

​​​​​​​Historically, these health inequities have prevented parents from accessing high-quality maternal health care. As a result, health disparities persist among different demographic groups, leading to poorer maternal health outcomes, diminished patient-provider trust, and a lower quality of life for new mothers.

DIEEP addresses the barriers and health inequities causing these disparities through health equity education and collaboration with local health-related organizations and agencies. It also targets the social determinants of health (SDOH) at the heart of our patient population. SDOH are the non-medical social factors that impact a person’s health and well-being, such as socioeconomic status, age, sex, gender identity, and race. These are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and the wider set of circumstances impacting a person’s life.

As a community-focused health care project committed to promoting health and well-being, DIEEP strives to​​​​​​​ advance health equity throughout the greater New Orleans population. The program has achieved significant milestones including hosting and teaching health equity training with local organizations, and even developing an effective Community Health Worker program to guide maternal patients towards addressing SDOH and improving equitable birthing circumstances. Needless to say, DIEEP works tirelessly to protect vulnerable populations from health inequities and improve maternal health outcomes. However, these achievements mark only the beginning of DIEEP’s outreach goals to reduce infant food insecurity, improve awareness of maternal and paternal mental health, promote maternal health equity, and address the maternal health crisis.

Want to learn more about maternal health equity? Read our article here for more information. 

Have questions or want to know more about the project’s health equity initiatives? Click here for more information, or call a DIEEP Catalyst staff member at (504) 482-2080.