Waking Up to Change: A Maternal Health Forum & Book Release Party (Live Replay)

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 3 of The Heart Next Door podcast! This episode features the live replay of the highly anticipated Waking Up to Change event, which was both my book release party for Waking Up to Grace and a powerful maternal health forum. At this point in the event, I had just finished sharing my personal birth story, and we’re transitioning into an incredible panel discussion with maternal health experts, advocates, and mothers who are working to improve maternal outcomes. It was a transformative evening, and I’m excited for you to hear it all. Meet the Panelists:Katina Bryant is the Visionary & CEO of Women Intercessors Showing Empathy (W.I.S.E), a faith-based nonprofit organization that seeks to educate and empower women to overcome barriers, become self-reliant, and establish and achieve their physical, mental, and spiritual goals. The org’s long-term goal is to secure moms and babies with homes, to help reduce infant mortality and to provide social-emotional and spiritual support to homeless pregnant and parenting young women. Katina has a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Behavioral Science and a Master of Science in Educational Leadership. She considers herself a parent educator, a community leader, and an advocate for underserved and at-risk populations. She is passionate about spiritual awareness, diversity, equity and inclusion, disability awareness, and overcoming grief and loss. She loves learning all positive and productive things that will liberate and empower our culture. For more information, visit wisewomenryze.com.com.Penny Armbruster has a background in international business, human resources and ministry start ups. Her lifelong desire is to celebrate and encourage women as they seek to "be all things" to the people they love and care for. Most recently Penny had been blessed to serve women in South West Detroit in her role as Executive Director at the Luke Clinic. She was instrumental in the visioning and initial startup of the clinic 6 years ago and is passionate about serving those who are most vulnerable in our society. By providing a safe and loving environment for women to find support, encouragement, and excellent medical care during their pregnancies she has found her dream vocation.Angelene Love-Adams wears multiple crowns to wrap her community individualized support, to reduce the maternal and infant mortality rates for Black and Brown birthing people. She is a lactation supporter, equityadvocate and full-spectrum doula. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Health Education from Eastern Michigan University and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Public Health Education and a Certified Lactation Counselor certification. Angelene works diligently to identify, create, and strengthen partnerships with community individuals, grassroots organizations and systems to effect change centering the Black families who have been systematically oppressed. Angelene is the Human Milk Transport Coordinator for Mama’s Mobile Milk, a free program that delivers human milk from mothers to their separated babies around Michigan, including separation due to encaration. Additionally, she is the co-owner of Wrapped in Love Doula & Lactation Services, an organization that aims to support families in their birth and beyond journey by wrapping them in love, advocacy, support and education every step of the way, also providing equity and community collaboration consulting. Angelene recently and enthusiastically stepped into the role of Program Director for the Survivor Moms’ Companion program. This is a psychoeducation program that supports birthing people navigate childhood maltreatment and trauma that may resurface during the perinatal period and early parenting, by connecting families with culturally congruent tutors to walk alongside them during their healing journey. In this new role Angelene is prioritizing weaving equity into the framework of the program to ensure the needs of all families are me. She believes that with new insight and lived experience she brings to the program it will grow, flourish and scale to reach more families outside of Michigan. Additionally, she is the co-owner of Wrapped in Love Doula & Lactation Services, an organization that aims to support families in their birth and beyond journey by wrapping them in love, advocacy, support and education every step of the way.Dr. Maria Muzik is a Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics & Gynecology at Michigan Medicine. Her work focuses on the impact of stress, trauma and mental illness in the context of childbearing on caregiving and the developing parent-child relationship, and how to support families in overcoming psychological and environmental adversity. She serves as Principal or Co-Investigator on multiple projects funded by the National Institute of Health, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services-Administration for Children and Families, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid in Michigan. She holds a doctorate in Medicine and master’s degree in Public Health, and serve as the Medical Director of the Perinatal Psychiatry Program at Michigan Medicine in charge of perinatal clinical care delivery both within psychiatry as well as integrated within obstetrics, family medicine and pediatrics. Additionally, she is the medical director for MC3 Perinatal, a state-wide perinatal access program to primary care, public health nursing, community mental health and other health providers. She is the co-director of Zero To Thrive, a multidisciplinary initiative at the University of Michigan focused on promoting science, increasing public awareness, and developing and implementing programs and services to buffer risks and enhance resilience in young children under the age of 5. Within the scope of this work she has co-developed the Strong Roots Curricula, a series of interventions for parents and other caregivers to foster caregivers’ reflective capacity and enhance their sensitive caregiving, and ultimately, to benefit the wellness and health of young children. In 2018, she has co-edited the book Motherhood in the Face of Trauma: Pathways Towards Healing and Growth (Springer, 2018). Dr. Muzik is highly published with over 140 articles in peer-reviewed journals.Dr. AnneMarie Opipari is a second-year fellow in Maternal Fetal Medicine at Michigan Medicine, a specialty dedicated to the care of all high-risk pregnancies. Dr. Opipari's clinical work and research is devoted to advancing and optimizing the diagnosis and care of pregnant patients with placenta accreta.Brittany Rhodes is a mom and Founder of Black Girl MATHgic, , a monthly subscription box service curated to increase math confidence and decrease math anxiety in girls on a third to eighth-grade math skill level. Through her own high-risk birth experience and the experiences of other moms in her network, she brings a wealth of maternal insight to the table.