From prenatal care and labor and delivery to neonatal intensive care and postpartum follow-up, Bronson Healthcare plays a critical role in influencing health outcomes for mothers and babies across Southwest Michigan.
In celebrating a historic reduction in Black infant mortality across Kalamazoo County, Bronson acknowledged that creating change requires shared ownership across clinical, community and public health settings.
“This work does not belong to any single organization,” said Bill Manns, president and CEO, Bronson Healthcare. “It belongs to all of us who care for families before, during and after birth — and to the communities who trust us with their babies’ lives.”
In addition to local partnerships, Bronson teams are engaged with the MHA Council on Health Access and Community Impact and MHA Community Benefit Collaboratives to help advance statewide improvements in maternal health.
Below are a few of the initiatives underway at Bronson to advance maternal and infant health.
Bronson CenteringPregnancy® Program
Bronson’s CenteringPregnancy® program combines expert clinical care with peer support and education for moms-to-be. The program, covered like traditional prenatal visits by Medicaid and most insurers, has led to lower rates of preterm birth, reduced risk of low birth weight and higher breastfeeding success rates.
Participants meet regularly in groups of 8-12 based on due date. Each session includes a private check-up with a certified nurse midwife as well as a group discussion covering topics like nutrition, labor choices, breastfeeding and newborn care.
Breastfeeding Resources, Support
In addition to lactation services and milk banking, Bronson offers Baby Cafés in Kalamazoo and Battle Creek for walk-in breastfeeding support in a welcoming, coffee shop-style environment.
The goal is to help infants build better immune and brain health, improve digestion, while also reducing the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and chronic conditions like asthma, diabetes and certain childhood cancers. For mothers, this work supports postpartum recovery while helping lower the risk of breast and ovarian cancers.
A System-Wide Approach
Improving infant and maternal health requires care coordination. Alongside midwives who are expertly trained to provide gynecological care and pre- and postnatal obstetric care, Bronson community health workers help pregnant and postpartum patients address non-medical factors that can affect birthing outcomes. This support can look like:
- Providing referrals at the first prenatal intake call, with additional referrals coming from obstetric and maternal fetal medicine providers.
- Connecting families with a variety of resources, ranging from transportation, housing support and food access to breastfeeding resources and parenting programs.
- Helping families feel more comfortable participating in services like Healthy Babies Healthy Start home visiting programs.
By addressing social drivers of health and building trust early in pregnancy, these team members help reduce gaps in prenatal care – a key factor in preventing preterm birth and other complications associated with infant mortality.
Other efforts by Bronson include their childcare collaborative and Battle Creek childcare center, family-centered educational classes, Cribs for Kids® national safe sleep hospital certification program and Bump2Baby360 patient app.
Those interested in learning more are encouraged to visit the Bronson website. Questions or content ideas for the Hospitals Help series can be directed to Lucy Ciaramitaro at the MHA.
Adam Carlson, senior vice president, advocacy, MHA, joined JJ Hodshire, president and chief executive officer, Hillsdale Hospital, for a press conference April 17 to discuss how proposed cuts to Medicaid will further destabilize hospitals already experiencing financial strain.
