Racial Maternal Health concerns addresses for expecting mothers

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - The All Hands Cultural Community Center is addressing an issue in the Black and Brown community, racial maternal health. The problem is something Ronnie Williams, the COO of the All Hands Cultural Community Center wants to tackle.

“I kept seeing too many young ladies coming up and down the street pushing baby carts,” said Ronnie Williams.

Seeing this struck a chord with Williams, and he knew he needed to change things.

“This is an issue that we need to address from the top to the bottom to see if we can help everyone in the community. This is one thing that we have to do is take a step, and maybe by we being a hub in the community that people will be able to say hey, I can walk there and get the services,” said Williams.

When Gloria Leonard heard about the event she knew she wanted to be on the panel.

“Then there are people who don’t have anyone. They just don’t know their family members are there for moral support, they may not have the information as far as what to expect when I go into the delivery room from the providers of my care be it the doctor, the nurse, or whoever,” said Leonard, speaker of the Racial Maternal Health.

Another problem is the language barrier issue.

“Maybe some of these people are not speaking the same language as the doctors and we need to figure out what is the problem or how we can address the problem. They have problems speaking to us so if they have problems speaking to us and not understanding what’s going on maybe we need to figure out what they’re facing when they’re going to the hospital,” said Williams.

Leonard said advocacy is not just for expecting mothers.

“If you are on medication how to take it properly, those are things that maybe you leave the doctor’s office because you don’t get the time with them to ask all the questions you would ask you can come, and we can say we will help you understand it better,” said Leonard.

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