EMBRACE Prenatal Care Study
Prenatal Care Resource List
For Black Women & Birthing People
in Fresno County
Perinatal Wellness was developed to work specifically with pregnant and post- partum birthing persons experiencing mood disorders and anxiety.
Contact: Alexandra Addo-Boateng
Phone: 559.244.4581
Fresno EOC WIC provides healthy food, nutrition education, breastfeeding support, and family resources to more than 28,000 women, children, and families in Fresno County. If you’re pregnant, or a caretaker of a child under age five, you can get personalized support for you and your family at one of our WIC offices.
Anthem BlueCross: New Baby, New Life Program
The New Baby, New Life program is a comprehensive proactive case management and care coordination program for all expectant mothers and their newborns.
Contact: Customer Care
Phone: 888-285-7801
Contact: Mental and Behavioral Health Support
Phone: 888-548-3432
Contact: 24/7 Nurse Line
Phone: 800-224-0336.
CalViva Health is here to help our members have healthy pregnancies and healthy babies. In addition to prenatal (before birth) and postpartum (after birth) health care services, members have access to the resources listed below.
Contact: Member Services
Phone: 888-893-1569
Transportation (option 3)
Advice nurse (option 4)
BLACK Wellness & Prosperity Center (BWPC) is unapologetically dedicated to the Black community in California’s Central Valley with the goal of improving Black Maternal and Infant Health outcomes.
Contact: Community Resources & Referrals
Phone: 559-767-1756
The BIH Program focuses exclusively on empowering Black/African American women by connecting them with the vital care and support needed to promote healthy behaviors during pregnancy and continuing after her baby is born.
Contact: Sabrina Beavers
559-600-1021
Email: sbeavers@fresnocountyca.gov
The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) added doula services as a covered benefit on January 1, 2023. Doula services are available in fee-for-service and through managed care plans (MCPs). Services include personal support to individuals and families throughout pregnancy and one year postpartum. This includes emotional and physical support provided during pregnancy, labor, birth, and the postpartum period, as well as support for and after miscarriage and abortion.
Contact: Doula Services
Email: DoulaBenefit@dhcs.ca.gov
The program utilizes case managers trained in performing needs assessments to link families to services such as: food access, hot meal program, clothing, shoes, toys, toiletries, beds, bedding, backpacks, school supplies, utility assistance, various family reunification agencies and other needed services.
Contact: Families Together Program
Phone: 559-374-5750
Email: yrandles@wfresnofrc.org
California Perinatal Equity Initiative (PEI) provides support and resources to Black families that complements programs and services offered through the Black Infant Health (BIH) Program.
Contact: PEI Coordinator, Gifty Kwofie
Phone: 559-600-6359 / 559-600-3330
Email: gkwofie@co.fresno.ca.us
A full list of resources for before, during and after pregnancy.
For Healthcare Providers in Fresno County
National Association of Community Health Centers' Ground Work training is designed to help the health center field level-set on the concepts of racial identity, privilege, bias, and structural and institutional racism. Health centers serve 1 in 7 people of color in the United States.
Duration: 4-6 hours
The California Pregnancy-Associated Review Committee is a multi-disciplinary group of professionals and community representatives that reviews case-level (de-identified) information about deaths of California residents that occur during pregnancy or within one year of the end of pregnancy. The purpose of the CA-PARC is to make data-driven, actionable recommendations on changes in practices, programs, and policies to eliminate preventable maternal deaths and health inequities.
Contact: Inquire about joining the committee
Email: datacenter@cmqcc.org
Phone: 650-725-6108
This paper explored the intersections of racism and the COVID-19 pandemic impact on the daily lives and perinatal care experiences of Black birthing people.
This Cochrane Review protocol aims to evaluate the impact of health professional contact (such as home visits, telehealth, or clinic visits) with postpartum women, who are not enrolled in specialized programs, during the first four weeks after hospital discharge. The goal is to assess how these interactions affect maternal and infant health outcomes.
For Policymakers in Fresno County
A detailed report of the Central Valley Health Policy Institute’s research methods, findings, community input and recommendations. The report underscores barriers and highlights opportunities to change the odds for African American babies in Fresno County.
The Practitioner's Guide for Advancing Health Equity: Community Strategies for Preventing Chronic Disease provides lessons from evidence- and practice-based strategies. The innovative ideas highlight how to maximize policy, systems, and environmental improvement strategies—all with the goal of reducing health disparities and advancing health equity. Although this guide covers various aspects of health equity, the strategies can be applied to perinatal health.
The Black Maternal Health Crisis report highlights that Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes, worsened by medical racism and the COVID-19 pandemic. Key recommendations include federal actions like the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act and Women’s Health Protection Act, along with state efforts to decriminalize reproductive care and promote anti-racism training in healthcare. These changes are essential for improving Black maternal health outcomes.
Exposure to environmental chemicals and psychosocial stressors during pregnancy is linked to negative birth outcomes, but they are often studied separately. The NIH’s Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program combines data from over 50,000 children across the U.S., with 38 cohorts examining both environmental and social stressors. ECHO provides a unique opportunity for research on maternal health, comparing regions with different environmental and social conditions.
The Central Valley Health Policy Institute (CVHPI) was established at California State University, Fresno to facilitate regional research, leadership training and graduate education programs to address emerging health policy issues that influence the health status of people living in Central California.