This article is published in partnership with the New York & Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative.

Taylor Robinson was a 24-year-old mother-to-be facing mental health struggles a year ago. Today, she’s a busy mom with a full-time job. Adjusting to parenthood has not always been easy, but she feels she’s had support.

Robinson credits a local program that pairs pregnant Detroiters with community health workers and certified nurse midwives with helping her through that tough time.

“They helped me with everything I was going through,” Robinson said. “If I needed anything, just [someone] to talk to, they were there.”

The WIN Network, based at Henry Ford Health System, provided Robinson with resources to help with her pregnancy and her career.  The program assists with everything from navigating doctor’s visits and food insecurity to transportation and other challenges.  

The staff paired her with a doula and gave her resources to help her obtain her real estate license. They even helped deliver groceries.

On Feb. 8, Robinson delivered a full-term baby, A’miyrah, and now works for Henry Ford Health, where the WIN Network is housed. 

The odds are against Black moms like Robinson and their infants. Black babies in Michigan were nearly three times more likely than white babies to die in 2022, according to state statistics.

Dr. Kimberlydawn Wisdom, senior vice president of community health and equity and chief wellness and diversity officer at Henry Ford Health, founded the WIN Network, which emerged from the Detroit Regional Infant Mortality Reduction Task Force created in 2008.

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In 2016, the WIN Network began bringing together a dozen pregnant women in a group for about two hours of biomedical checkups  — blood pressure, belly height, etc. — and sharing their pregnancies with one another, community health workers, and midwives.

The program boasts a solid track record of impact, with 94% of babies born to participating moms at full term, compared to 89.6 percent for the state of Michigan and 86 percent for Detroit. 

Why access to care isn’t enough to solve Black infant mortality

Preterm birth is a leading cause of infant mortality and illness across the globe. WIN participants were more likely than controls to be admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit, according to a 2023 study – meaning that early arrivals were more likely to receive needed care.

Wisdom said simply increasing access to healthcare or raising awareness via billboards or other communications isn’t enough to make a substantial change in maternal and infant health outcomes in the Black community. 

She said it also requires a hands-on approach that addresses the many needs of Black moms.

“We have very high infant mortality rates in the city of Detroit, which is not new news. It’s still appalling, but it’s not new news. But it’s moving very slowly in the right direction,” Wisdom said. 

Aiming to expand

Wisdom wants to see WIN expand within and outside of the Henry Ford Health System to Metro Detroit and, hopefully, across the country. She said the program is talking with Corewell Health, one of the organization’s funders, about expanding the initiative elsewhere in Metro Detroit.  Corewell Health did not respond to requests for comment. 

Wisdom notes that Detroit and Cleveland, where the WIN program was replicated briefly before the COVID-19 pandemic, have robust healthcare systems. But social determinants of health drive negative health outcomes even with access to healthcare, she said.

“If stress levels are high, it can result in poor birth outcomes. We have to look at their access to food, housing and education.,” Wisdom said. “You can have the very best healthcare systems and some of the poorest healthcare outcomes.”

Wisdom did not name which funders were interested in investing in the program, but she said she is confident that the program will continue to expand. 

“We have seen the change in the women whose lives we have had the privilege of touching. We’ve seen the statistics change,” Wisdom said. 

“If this evidence-based program can be replicated all over the city of Detroit, we’re very confident that we can—within a very short period of time— change the trajectory that we’ve been on.”

Addressing Black infant mortality by serving Black moms

Beyond directly working with pregnant people, WIN aims to address healthcare bias that could contribute to Black infant mortality rates. With funding from Henry Ford Health, the WIN Network developed a four-hour unconscious bias training course, which counts medical professionals’ continuing education credits, Wisdom said. 

The program has trained all types of healthcare workers, from neonatologists and hospital housekeepers to doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists.

“We could eliminate, certainly mitigate or lessen, but ultimately eliminate unconscious bias in how we care for our pregnant and postpartum moms and babies,” Wisdom said.

Besides bias in the medical system, many pregnant Detroiters face other systemic barriers such as a lack of reliable public transportation and high car insurance rates that can make it difficult for them to get to their medical checkups.

“We have to start being preventative rather than reactionary. And that’s on an individual and a systemic basis,” Lauren Thomas, community legal advocate at the Detroit Justice Center, said. 

Dr. Iris Taylor, administrator of clinical programs at the Detroit Health Department, noted the city’s efforts to address the problem via programs like SisterFriends Detroit, which supports new parents until their child’s first birthday, and the city’s Safe Sleep program, which educates parents on how babies can safely sleep in their cribs. 

“Through our collective impact, we are going to be able to dent or significantly reduce the disparity that currently exists,” Taylor said.

Taylor said the city’s health department also participates in collaboratives led by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, including the Southeastern Michigan Perinatal Quality Improvement Coalition, which encompasses Oakland, Wayne, and Macomb counties. The programs aim to coordinate perinatal care practitioners across the state around strategies with the best evidence for improving infant and maternal health outcomes.

She also points to the recent “MI Momnibus” bill package under consideration in the Michigan Legislature, noting that if passed, it could enhance the Detroit Health Department’s services. The legislation has yet to move forward.

Robinson said she is grateful that WIN assists parents until their child is 1.

“I know they stay with you until your baby is 1, but I was like, ‘Child, y’all gonna stay with me forever,’” Robinson said. “They helped us with everything, so I just felt like they’re family now.”