Protocol Abstract of Mama Sana: Optimizing Health Outcomes for Spanish-speaking Mothers and Their Babies at Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Abstract

ObjectivesMama Sana is a quality improvement program that will provide perinatal nutrition and breastfeeding (BF) counseling in a culturally and language-specific manner to Spanish-speaking patients at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) (Boston, MA). Our goal is to increase rates of exclusive BF at discharge and 6-weeks postpartum (PP), decrease PP weight retention, and improve diet quality for all patients enrolled.MethodsSpanish-speaking patients screened and identified at a prenatal visit will be able to attend group virtual classes conducted in Spanish on BF, nutrition, and nutrition for gestational diabetes conducted by a bilingual registered dietitian and certified lactation counselor. Data on infant feeding intentions, diet quality, and perceived module effectiveness will be gathered using REDCap questionnaires. All Spanish-speaking patients who deliver at BWH will receive bedside lactation counseling, as well as follow-up counseling at 7–14 days, 3, and 6 months after delivery. We will collect information on BF status and lifestyle habits using standardized questionnaires during each call. Patients will have access to a Spanish BF “warmline” until 1 year PP. Information on maternal and infant health, delivery data, and comorbidities will be gathered from the electronic medical records of participants. Baseline data will be collected from Spanish-speaking patients who delivered at BWH and were discharged prior to program implementation.ResultsWe aim to perform 100 retrospective chart reviews and enroll 100 birthing parents prospectively to reach a total of 200 participants over 12 months. We will examine demographics and compare characteristics between the pre-and post-Mama Sana epochs using the Student's T-test or chi-squared test for continuous and categorical data, respectively. We will compare process measures, outcomes, and balancing measures by epoch using run charts and will examine changes over time.ConclusionsMama Sana combines language and culturally concordant BF and nutrition counseling to target health issues affecting Spanish-speaking mother-infant dyads. We anticipate this wrap-around model will decrease disparities in health care delivery and improve BF initiation and duration rates, as well as diet quality and weight retention in enrolled mothers.Funding SourcesBWH Department of Pediatric of Newborn Medicine.