Our Great Starts™ program recently hosted a collaborative four-day instructor training workshop as a part of the Mama AMMAAN (Safe Mother) project.
It’s an honor to be a part of this important effort to address racial and ethnic disparities in prenatal care with partners centered in our South Seattle neighborhood.
Mama AMMAAN is a partnership of the Somali Health Board, University of Washington, Health Alliance International and Parent Trust’s Great Starts™ Program. The acronym stands for the African Mother-to-Mother Antenatal Assistance Network.
The aim of the project is to recruit and train community doulas to deliver culturally congruent perinatal care, childbirth education, doula services and patient navigation support. All the workshop participants are already birth professionals and members of the local Somali community.
Our trainers facilitated these learning sessions collaboratively, in open dialog with the program participants. Faisa Farole of Somali Doulas Northwest and the Somali Health Board are working to create a flexible series of drop-in classes, based on the workshop. These classes will feature a peer-to-peer learning environment, something that focus groups from the Somali community identified as vital.
Parent Trust wishes to thank all of our partners in this effort: Jihan Rashid, Faisa Farole, Suad Farole, and Dr. Rachel Chapman. And our inspiring Great Starts™ Trainers, Kim James and Tracy McPhillips along with Program Manager, Sally Brady.
Links:
Somali Health Board: http://somalihealthboard.org/
Somali Doulas Northwest https://www.somalidoulas.org/
Health Alliance International: https://healthallianceinternational.org/
University of Washington https://www.washington.edu/