COLUMBIA – Wholesome Blue Missouri is partnering with a nonprofit referred to as Rely the Kicks to broaden stillbirth prevention efforts all through Missouri.
The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention defines stillbirths because the lack of a child at 20 weeks or extra throughout being pregnant. CDC Surprise knowledge additionally notes that for Missouri households, one in 171 pregnancies finish in stillbirth, and households in Missouri are 6.5 occasions extra prone to lose a child to stillbirth than to Sudden Toddler Dying Syndrome.
By this partnership, Counting the Kicks was in a position so as to add a brand new Social Determinants of Well being (SDOH) survey on the Rely the Kicks app, resembling whether or not or not they’ve entry to nutritious meals, protected housing or little one care.
“If mothers want assist in any of these areas, they will be related to that useful resource,” Emily Value, CEO of Wholesome Beginning Day, the guardian firm of Rely the Kicks, mentioned. “It should get them protected housing, nutritious meals little one care inside their zip code.”
The free app has been round since 2015, however the brand new partnership with Wholesome Blue Missouri goals to unfold consciousness to a high-risk state. It permits customers to see their kick-counting historical past, charge the energy of their child’s actions, set every day reminders and have the ability to rely for single infants and twins.
“The explanation why this can be a life-saving instrument is as a result of when a child’s actions modified, that might be a purple flag, that there’s something going mistaken in being pregnant,” Value mentioned.
When it comes to stillbirth causes, one noteworthy trigger is a lack of information.
“One of the crucial pressing public well being points in Missouri is the sort of unfavorable maternal and being pregnant associated well being outcomes that the state has skilled lately,” Dr. Nadim Kanafani, Wholesome Blue’s medical director, mentioned.
Rely the Kicks is a nonprofit particularly centered on stillbirth prevention. In keeping with the CDC, stillbirth is a nationwide public well being disaster. CDC Surprise knowledge additionally reveals that “practically 30% of stillbirths may be prevented when expectant dad and mom are knowledgeable on the significance of monitoring their child’s actions every day beginning at 28 weeks.”
Maria Walsh is a Rely the Kicks ambassador who lives in Kansas Metropolis along with her husband and two kids. 9 years in the past, she was an expectant mom who gave start to a stillborn son.
“We went in to suppose that we had been delivering our wholesome child boy, and he had handed,” Walsh mentioned.
Walsh was a first-time mom when she gave start to her stillborn son, Oliver. She mentioned she believes Oliver would nonetheless be right here if her physician requested extra open-ended questions throughout her being pregnant.
“After I mentioned, ‘My actions altering,’ all they only mentioned is, ‘Motion adjustments on the finish. That is regular.’ What we’re making an attempt to get our suppliers to ask is, ‘Inform me in regards to the motion.’ Make it a extra open-ended query,” Walsh mentioned.
Walsh didn’t discover out about Rely the Kicks till seven years after Oliver handed, however she mentioned she obtained concerned as a strategy to honor her son.
“This was one thing that simply sort of sang to my coronary heart and simply appeared proper to me to turn out to be an envoy for Missouri to assist different households,” she mentioned.
Walsh additionally mentioned she needs she knew in regards to the app on the time due to the info it gives.
“I simply actually really feel like it might have given me the ability to indicate that issues weren’t what they had been purported to be,” Walsh mentioned.
In keeping with Value, the difficulty of stillbirths is a disaster containing one other disaster.
“Black ladies are two occasions at better danger to lose their infants to stillbirth than white ladies,” Value mentioned. “Asian Pacific Islander households are additionally at better danger, and Hispanic households are additionally at better danger of dropping their infants to stillbirth.”
Along with making the app obtainable in 16 languages, Kanafani says that by accumulating demographic knowledge, Wholesome Blue is ready to additional its mission past floor stage expectations.
“I do not suppose insurance coverage anymore, particularly in Medicaid, is simply paying the payments,” he mentioned. “It is actually, we have to rework how we do enterprise.”
Because the app’s launch in 2015, it has been downloaded in over 140 international locations and in all 50 states. In keeping with Counting the Kicks, over 215,000 expectant dad and mom have downloaded the app to trace their kids’s actions.
With the brand new initiative, Counting the Kicks hopes to save lots of a median of 136 infants per yr in Missouri.
“It would take a number of extra minutes, however it could be the distinction,” Walsh mentioned.
The app is obtainable within the iOS and Google Play app shops.