On Friday, March 3, the Latina Leadership Podcast hosted a day-long conference titled “Mind, Body and Latina Soul,” which offered Latinas from Houston a holistic view of their health from a culturally informed perspective.
The event included a panel, titled “Mamá’s Health is the Responsibility of Everyone,” focused on maternal health and moderated by the Houston Landing. Panelists included Marlen Trujillo, CEO at Spring Branch Community Center; Samantha Anchia, director of donor development in Houston for March of Dimes; and Monica Guillen, manager of client services at the Houston Area Women’s Center.
The panel covered topics such as financial empowerment and wellness, protecting mental space and building confidence, as well as some of the health disparities impacting our community, including access to health care and other resources for low-income families.
Maternal health and the health of their babies has been linked to the family’s socioeconomic levels.
According to the CDC, maternal mortality has been on the rise since 2018 for women in general. The maternal mortality rate peaked amid the pandemic in 2021 with 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to a rate 20.1 per 100,000 in 2019 and 17.4 per 100,000 in 2018.
For Hispanic or Latina women, the mortality rate increased from 11.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2018, to a rate of 28 deaths in 2021.
Texas received a D grade for pre-term birth rates – babies born under 37 weeks of gestation – in the 2024 March of Dimes Report. March of Dimes rates states based on many health factors, including pre-term births.
The state is also ranked “very high” in the March of Dimes vulnerability index, which measures birthing people’s exposure to risk factors, such as exposure to pollution, extreme heat, inadequate prenatal health care, that can result in pre-term labors or maternal mortality.
Here’s what panelists had to say. Answers are edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: What are some of the key disparities affecting Latina mothers today?
Anchia: Top of mind since the new administration came to place, the latest disparity affecting many Latinas is the topic of immigration. Latina women right now have fear when they are going to seek prenatal care. In fact, they are not going to seek it out of fear. This is a huge problem that is on the rise.
Guillen: These fears may also cause mothers not to seek any other preventative health care. Those factors contribute to high-risk pregnancies.
Trujillo: On this note, we had a baby who was delivered at one of our clinics. We don’t deliver babies — we take care of prenatal care. But the baby was delivered in our parking lot by a pediatrician and a nurse practitioner. Baby is healthy, mom is healthy, but they didn’t want to go to the hospital.
Q: What are some of the social and economic factors that lead to disparities?
Anchia: A statistic I read the other day is that 61 percent of Latina mothers are working mothers, but they are also taking care of aging parents, have demanding jobs, often earn low wages, so we don’t prioritize our health. All of this can lead to preeclampsia, diabetes and other pregnancy-related issues.
Guillen: My own pregnancy was high risk. My daughter was delivered at 37 weeks. And I know we mentioned immigration as a challenge, but also socioeconomic status. Not everyone has insurance. And in my area of expertise, which is domestic violence, over 90 percent of the women who are survivors of domestic violence are also survivors of sexual violence, and they don’t have the means to go to the doctor.
Q: How can we advocate for Latina maternal health within our community, and what can we do as a community to better support a mother’s well-being?
Anchia: Spreading this type of awareness to any woman that you come across with. I go back to spreading facts. As we are speaking to mothers, encourage them to get prenatal care, take that fear away from them because we want to spread facts. And the fact is that they are not going to get deported when they go to the hospital to deliver their baby.
Trujillo: That’s going to be something that we continue to tell our community, that we have trusted partners out there, to please continue to go to the doctor, please continue to prioritize your health. On the financial side, we continue to educate our community that there is CHIP Perinatal. The program was created for women who are here undocumented, and it protects them during pregnancy by providing that prenatal care. So we help them apply for that.
Guillen: I think normalizing conversations, just like we are doing right now, is very important. And at the macro level, also working for policy changes, that means advocating for Medicaid expansion, paid maternity leave, those financial barriers that a lot of women face. And supporting legislation that protects immigrant mothers.
Q: Mental health struggles often go undiscussed in our communities. What are some of the biggest challenges for taking care of a mother’s mental health, and how can we create safe spaces for conversations about maternal mental health?
Anchia: Yes, in our communities we are very used to not wanting to talk about this. So I think it’s about breaking that cycle. When somebody is struggling with something, really listen to them, thank them for telling you. I think the biggest thing is that we don’t really talk about it because it’s not welcomed in our own communities. So the more we talk about it, the more we ourselves are safe spaces.
Guillen: Being able to talk and break those stigmas about post-partum depression, about anxiety, is important. I know I grew up with the “aguantate mija, be strong.” Well, there are resources, and I don’t have to be strong by myself. But a lot of times there is a stigma that continues to be carried when people are seeking help. Even now, in this society, we are also dealing with the guilt of being a working mother, so I think it’s important to have those conversations and to celebrate whatever choice a woman makes for herself.
Trujillo: I think we need to understand our community. In our community health center, we have baby showers, we have prenatal classes, we have group prenatal care where women create bonds, they create a group of comadres that they can call. But also, we need to create needs assessments, we need to ask our community what they need, including the timeframes in which they can actually attend these events. It’s about understanding the community and making sure that we ask them what they need.
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