Sibeko Collaborates with Multidisciplinary Team Addressing Black Maternal Health and Transportation
Nutrition chair Lindiwe Sibeko is part of a research team with Nursing and Engineering faculty.
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Lindiwe Sibeko, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Nutrition, along with Lucinda Canty and Favorite Iradukunda from the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing and Shannon Roberts from the College of Engineering, are the inaugural recipients of a seed grant program jointly sponsored by the Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation and the Institute of Diversity Sciences. The new seed grant aims to help support multidisciplinary research that promotes social justice.
Black women are disproportionately affected by maternal mortality and morbidity, highlighting the need for targeted research and interventions to mitigate what has become a national crisis. The research team’s project, titled "Black Maternal Mobility in Western Massachusetts: The Experience of Transportation Among Black Pregnant Women," aims to investigate the effects of mobility on Black maternal health, focusing on transportation access and issues faced by low income Black pregnant women in Western Massachusetts.
Sibeko points out “there is a clear understanding that social determinants of health need to be addressed if we are to improve health inequities. In my research, Black pregnant women have often identified the transportation challenges they have to navigate to get to their maternal care appointments. But there is a gap in our knowledge; it’s not clear in what ways transportation influences care during pregnancy.”
The project aims to fill this gap in knowledge by gathering timely and important data to increase awareness of the challenges experienced by Black pregnant women and ultimately improve the quality of care by improving mobility for this vulnerable population.
“The beauty of our multidisciplinary team is that we bring a unique combination of methodologies to address this important issue,” says Sibeko. “Using a community based participatory research approach, mixed methods, ride-along and secondary data analysis, we will identify the challenges experienced by Black pregnant women and elucidate in what way these issues of mobility impact maternal health.”
The team’s ultimate goal is to use their findings to develop interventions focused on improved transportation solutions to accessing maternal healthcare facilities for Black pregnant women in Western Massachusetts.