Video Series Launching to Improve Maternal and Infant Health

Healthcare Network, which provides healthcare to nearly 60 percent of all children in Collier County, recently produced a series of videos thanks to a $27,000 Collier Community Foundation grant to address challenging local maternal and child health issues. The topics of these videos, created in Spanish, Haitian-Creole, and English, include hypertension-preeclampsia, postpartum depression, nutrition during pregnancy, and developmental milestones.

The videos will play a critical role as Black (59%) and Hispanic (68%) mothers are less likely than White (77%) to have prenatal care in the first trimester. According to the CDC, preterm births and low birth weight babies are also significantly higher for Black and Hispanic mothers in Collier County.

Research has demonstrated that short educational and instructional videos improve knowledge and understanding and are particularly effective when they address population-specific cultures and languages.

Healthcare Network’s Community Outreach Team is focused on sharing these videos in one-on-one education sessions with women planning to start a family, are pregnant, have young children, reside in one of five low-income ZIP codes, and speak limited English. These videos will also be used for patient education as part of the Florida Department of Health Severe Maternal Morbidity grant, which Healthcare Network recently received.

The goal of the videos is to provide Healthcare Network patients and local residents with new knowledge regarding preventative care and nutrition, developmental milestones, and how to access healthcare and social services.

“Videos improve engagement, understanding, and retention, leading to optimal health outcomes and an improved quality of life,” said Jaime Khemraj, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Healthcare Network. “Thanks to funding from the Collier Community Foundation, we expect to reach nearly 1,000 women to ultimately positively impact the number of preterm births, below-weight births, and rates of childhood obesity in Collier County.”