Expanding our Capacity

Project Description

Healthy Birth Day, the proven stillbirth organization in the United States based in Des Moines, was founded 15 years ago by five local mothers who all had experienced the loss of their daughters. Healthy Birth Day's mission is to improve birth outcomes through programming, advocacy and research. Health Equity is at the center of our work, with a goal to reduce the racial disparities that exist. We help save babies through our evidence-based Count the Kicks stillbirth prevention program, which educates expectant parents on the importance of tracking their babies' movements in the third trimester of pregnancy and to speak up if they notice a change. So far the organization has received approximately 150 baby save stories, 50 of which are from Iowa families.

Heathy Birth Day is in need of funding to increase staff capacity in order to host more educational tables at community health fairs and events (such as Roll Baby Roll), to reach expectant parents with our lifesaving Count the Kicks education, and to train local medical practitioners on how to talk to expectant parents about the importance of paying attention to their babies' movements in the third trimester and to oversee critical research projects with University of Iowa maternal health researchers to continue decreasing the number of stillbirths in Iowa and across the United States.