Greetings
FROM ONCE UPON A PREEMIE, INC PRESIDENT AND BOARD
Welcome to Once Upon A Preemie, Inc.’s 2nd Annual Conference entitled “Black Maternal Health and Neonatal Equity Conference: Parents, Practitioners, Policies, and Solutions.” This year’s conference reflects our continued efforts to champion and center Neonatal Equity in the Black Maternal Health policy, advocacy, and solutions agenda. This means that we—Once Upon A Preemie, Inc.—are committed to pioneering transformational educational programs and services designed for healthcare professionals who serve Black birthing families pre, during, and post-delivery, with a special focus on families with premature infants. This also entails partnering with key stakeholders, policy-makers, and parents with lived experiences who are bold, empowered and motivated to use their voices and expertise to move the equity needle forward. Our collective effort will, in turn, hold our healthcare systems accountable to implement vital changes in birth and neonatal equity! Our organizational vision and conference vision remain one and the same because it will take each and every one of us to make our shared vision of neonatal equity our reality. This year alone, as a nation, we’ve witnessed the alarming rise in black maternal and infant morbidity and mortality rates along with the widening gap of associated disparities. As a nation rich with medical and technological advances, these outcomes are unacceptable and demand more! More solutions driven by and for Black women. More funding to support proven solutions that save lives, families, and communities. More policies that protect Black birthing bodies. More champions, leaders, allies, and advocates to demand change. As we convene our 2nd Annual Conference, we need your hand in equity partnership, leadership, and advocacy to effect change from the seat in which you sit. After we leave this safe space, let us be great stewards of the information, education, networking, and solutions we’ve learned here today. Let us return to our respective institutions and be that leading voice of empowerment, change and advocacy. To our preemie parents, remember, our babies, our stories, and our lived experiences matter! It is what we have lived through that will transform how care is delivered to preemie babies globally, but it starts with us! I encourage you to lean into every presentation, every presenter, every story, and every dose of reality to return home ready to endure the road of perseverance ahead. Remember, we didn’t land in this crisis overnight, and it won’t be resolved overnight. While addressing this crisis will take time, we here at Once Upon A Preemie, Inc. stand with you, because we know that “together our partnership will eliminate Black maternal health and neonatal inequities.”
In Preemie Parent Power,
Jenné Johns, MPH Once Upon A Preemie, Inc. President & Board Chair
Stephanie Johns, M.e.D Once Upon A Preemie, Inc. Board Member
Armenda McWilliams-Pettey Once Upon A Preemie, Inc. Board Member
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