LAURENS COUNTY, Ga. — Six organizations in Georgia will get nearly $1 million in federal funding to help expecting and new parents.
Two of those recipients are located at Mercer University and the Laurens County Board of Health.
Both of them work with the statewide Healthy Start initiative.
Alesha Nolan gave birth to her son six months ago. She said helping pregnant women should be a no-brainer.
"They think if they’re going to trust you to deliver this baby, to be able to bring life into this world, why not make sure that they’re safe in that process," Nolan said.
Going through her first pregnancy, Nolan used services from Heart of Georgia Healthy Start in Laurens County.
Felicia Herrell said the education from Heart of Georgia Healthy Start is what every mom needs.
"You may have speech delay and hearing impaired or all that type of stuff. It's there but they're not actually seeing it but knowing what to look for with Healthy Start...it helps them to be aware," Herrell said.
Latosha Elbert is the director. She said the money from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration will help increase personnel.
"It’ll help as far as jobs for our case managers that provide services as well as our care coordinators who are our ins who provide services, and our admin support," Elbert said.
Elbert said she was relieved their program was listed as one of the grantees because women are in need of their services and education, especially women of color.
"We’re the ones that suffer the most," Elbert said.
The state Maternal Mortality Review Committee found that nearly 85% of pregnancy-related deaths in 2019-2021 were preventable.
The CDC said the mortality rate is significantly higher in Black women.
Nolan said that’s why she wanted the right tools when it was time to go to the hospital for the first time.
“I had just seen so many scary things that could happen but they really put a lot of that at ease with explaining to me that you can ask for this, you can say those things, and I wouldn’t have ever known that had not they told me honestly," Nolan said.
The HRSA is granting multiple organizations to combat this problem in Central Georgia. The federal funding is also going to Mercer University.
Mercer's School of Medicine has been working with the South Georgia Healthy Start for five years.
Jennifer Barkin said the money will help with personnel as well as provide items clients May need.
"A chunk of it is also for incentives for participants like car seats, pack and plays, breast pumps, glucose monitors, blood pressure cuffs, etcetera," Barkin said.
Barkin said this work aligns with Mercer’s mission to provide medical support in rural areas.
She said there’s more work to do but she calls the work they do rewarding.
"You can kind of see the look on someone’s face when you can give them a car seat or you’re able to deliver education or support them through a tough time. It’s a more immediate realization of impact I would say," Barkin said.
Mercer and the Laurens County Board of Health were the only two recipients in Central Georgia.
The federal funding is happening nationally. The HRSA is granting over $105 million to address maternal and infant mortality.