U.S. hospitals are increasingly working to reduce health disparities and advance health for all. To succeed, these efforts should be informed, enriched, and guided by patients with experience of the problems that hospitals seek to address. However, robust hospital engagement with such guidance remains rare. Our MENDS community/academic team is working to change that.
In the Fall of 2024 we convened new mothers from two San Francisco communities disproportionately burdened by worse maternal health outcomes. Please see the actionable and innovative recommendations they developed for local hospitals in the following links.
We plan to do this work in additional regions in the coming years. Please get in touch if you’d like to see strategy sessions like these in your community! ([email protected])
Full report: Community strategies for improving maternity care: Insights from Black and Pacific Islander mothers in San Francisco Resource sheets to help launch hospitals' work on the highest-priority recommendations are here.
Peer-reviewed manuscript:
Garrett SB, Ly C, Taylor JR, Aiono LL, Jones L, Powell B, Chambers Butcher B. "Community Recommendations for Hospital-Based Maternity Care: Insights from Black and Pacific Islander Mothers in San Francisco.” Health Equity. 2026;10:24731242261424791. Special issue, "Reimagining Perinatal Care to Promote Health Equity." doi:10.1177/24731242261424791
Other resources:
Slide deck: Overview of SF community recommendations from Black and Pacific Islander mothers as well as methods and next steps (AcademyHealth 2025) or associated Conference Poster (HEAR Symposium 2025)
Slide deck: How do MENDS SF community recommendations intersect with what scholarship identifies as drivers of maternal healthcare inequities? (AcademyHealth 2025)