CHAMPions (Community Hands Advancing Maternal Health Promotion)

CHAMPions (Community Hands Advancing Maternal Health Promotion)

Texas has high maternal mortality rates with CDC data for 2021 showing Texas with 43.9 maternal deaths per 100,000 births compared to California with the lowest rate at 9.7. A report by the US Government Accountability Office found that rural areas in Texas had fewer maternal health providers per capita with dozens of hospital closures, resulting in limited access to maternal services, especially in areas with a large minority population.

Robin L. Page, PhD, APRN, CNM, FACNM, FAAN

Principal Investigator

Center Goals

  • Strengthen public health capacity and workforce development by increasing availability of culturally appropriate CHAMPions training on maternal health.

  • Utilize Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) to integrate trained maternal CHAMPions into community[1]based education and the health care support network to increase access to support and information about maternal health and well-being for at-risk pregnant women.

  • Conduct and facilitate research on the efficacy of the maternal CHAMPions intervention on maternal health promotion to mitigate morbidity and mortality.

  • Build research capacity at two Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and with relevant, health-focused CBOs to conduct maternal health research.