Black Maternal Health Project
Scope:
Public Health / Data Equity
Year:
2024-2026
DETAILS
Black Maternal Health, Technology, and Environmental Justice
The Black Maternal Health project is a community-engaged research and innovation initiative examining how environmental exposures, structural inequities, and data gaps shape maternal health outcomes for Black women across diverse geographic contexts. Grounded in reproductive justice and health equity, the project integrates environmental data, health systems analysis, and emerging technologies to address persistent disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality before, during, and after pregnancy.
BlackBirthways: Human in the Loop AI Agents for Postpartum Care
BlackBirthways is a community rooted maternal health initiative advancing safe, culturally grounded birth and postpartum care for Black families. Through the CORE Futures Lab, we are engineering an emotionally intelligent, logic verified support AI-Agent that proactively identifies early warning signs and facilitates immediate Human in the Loop transitions. Designed to augment and not replace clinical care, this system actively connects mothers to doctors, doulas, crisis hotlines, and trusted community providers when risk indicators emerge. By combining responsible AI infrastructure, fairness aware design, and community based maternal health leadership, BlackBirthways bridges the divide often left by traditional postpartum care systems, strengthening continuity of care, reducing preventable risk, and centering equity, trust, and lived experience in digital health innovation.
BlackBirthways Project overview - https://blackbirthways.org/
AWS-MLU Spring AI/ML Teaching & Research Symposium *Human-in-the-Loop AI Agents for Postpartum Care* Tuskegee University, Feb 26-27 - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GKV7LKfNXxPj05V2EevJQAVbWz4Mu-WK/edit?slide=id.g3caf8f0900b_0_0#slide=id.g3caf8f0900b_0_0
Connecting Environment, Place, and Maternal Health
This work centers the reality that Black maternal health outcomes are deeply influenced by place-based conditions, including air pollution, heat exposure, housing quality, and access to postpartum care. The project uses geo-localized analysis to examine how environmental stressors intersect with healthcare access, social determinants of health, and institutional practices to produce unequal outcomes. By linking environmental justice and maternal health research, the project moves beyond clinical explanations toward systems-level understanding.
Data-Driven and Community-Centered
The project combines quantitative data analysis, qualitative interviews, and spatial mapping to surface patterns that are often obscured in national datasets. Community knowledge and lived experience are treated as essential data sources, informing research design, interpretation, and policy relevance. This approach ensures that findings reflect real-world maternal health experiences rather than abstract averages.
Technology for Care Navigation and Support
In parallel, the initiative explores the development of technology-enabled tools, including AI-supported applications, to improve maternal health education, care navigation, and postpartum support for Black mothers. These tools are designed with attention to data ethics, cultural relevance, and trust, prioritizing transparency and community accountability.
Toward Accountability and Policy Change
The Black Maternal Health project is oriented toward impact. Findings are translated into policy-relevant insights, advocacy tools, and frameworks for improving postpartum care, environmental protections, and health system responsiveness. By integrating research, technology, and community partnership, the project advances pathways toward accountability, improved care, and healthier outcomes for Black women and families.
Dear Mama: Highlighting Environmental Pollutants on Black Maternal Health
Singapore REACH Alliance Conference