PLAIN TALK BOOKLET PROJECT

One of North Country Baby Blessings projects is an initiative to increase maternal/newborn health literacy among the Amish through the development of culturally appropriate health literature that can be distributed to the women of the Amish community.

​We are updating and expanding the booklet, Plain Talk About Babies, a perinatal guide for Plain women. Some of the content in the booklet needs clarification, additional information, or more emphasis to help Amish women gain a better understanding of how to optimally care for themselves and their newborns. We are changing some of the illustrations in the booklet to provide more relevant content and to be more culturally acceptable to the stricter Amish communities. Information about available healthcare and community services that may be of interest to the Plain family is also being updated.
​
The initiative to update and expand the booklet, Plain Talk about Babies, will give the Plain Community a culturally appropriate resource that will provide anticipatory guidance, equip them to practice increased self-care, expand their knowledge of accessing medical care, and work to increase health literacy and improve patient/healthcare provider communications.

RhoGAM ACCESS PROJECT

RhoGAM is an injection made of immune globulin collected from plasma donors. It was developed in the 1960s to be given to blood type Rhesus (Rh) negative women during and (most importantly) after pregnancy to prevent the woman's body from building an immune response to a Rh positive baby. If it is not administered within 72 hours, it is possible that the mother's body will develop deadly immunity to any further pregnancies and destroy the future growing baby's blood cells. This will cause miscarriages in the affected woman or have a full term loss. RhoGAM has been renowned as a miracle drug, saving millions of RH positive babies. 

​RhoGAM is easiest to obtain in a hospital, and if a licensed midwife or doctor  has attended the birth in the community, either at a birthing center or at home.  At a home birth in the Plain Community, there is often no one who has credentials to obtain or administer Rhogam. Thus, the Rh negative woman must either have a time consuming and expensive emergency room visit within 72 hours of birth, or take her chances and forgo the shot. Through prior education and outreach, the Amish community is aware of the availability and benefit of RhoGAM, but their ability to access it is severely limited.

This project of North Country Baby Blessings aims to ameliorate this situation by having Rhogam on hand at all times and administering it by licensed midwives or registered nurses at a postpartum checkup within 72 hours of a birth where no licensed provider was present.