A Healthy Start: The Importance of Early Nutrition

Pregnancy is an often complex journey and navigating it can be difficult. In northeast Ohio, the nonprofit Birthing Beautiful Babies (BBC) provides expecting mothers with company on that journey in the form of non-medical perinatal support people, known as doulas. Formed over 10 years ago in Cleveland, the organization today sees more than 700 clients annually and is building the first freestanding birth center in northeast Ohio. They’ve expanded beyond doula services and now offer mental health services, childbirth education classes and prenatal and postpartum wellness resources.

“It’s whatever they and their support people desire or really feel like they need,” said Krista Lumpkins-Howard, director of training and community outreach at BBC. “We’re here to help them as they explore, ‘What does it look like to be a mom? What does this new human need from me? How do I provide and care for them?’”

While families often bring many questions to the process, Lumpkins-Howard noticed that few were asking about prenatal nutrition, even when experiencing conditions often related to inadequate nourishment during pregnancy.

“When we started having more clients with gestational diabetes, hypertension, preeclampsia and eclampsia, I realized we need to focus on this, because hydration and nutrition are so important.”

Our health in adulthood is shaped during the earliest moments of life, and research shows that children who are well nourished during fetal development and in the early years are much less likely to develop obesity, diabetes and heart disease as adults.

Across the country, community-based organizations and national health and nutrition agencies are integrating this research into their strategies to improve nutrition and health outcomes for pregnant women and their babies. With critical and ongoing support from Vitamix Foundation, the CDC Foundation brings more than 50 of these organizations, including BBC, together as part of the Hunger, Nutrition and Health in Pregnancy Action Network. These partners are given the opportunity to collaborate on solutions to the many complex problems around hunger and nutrition for expecting families and families with young children, expanding each organization’s reach and impact.

In addition to supporting pregnant women and families in improving nutrition, BBC’s work continues to focus on the essential role of training doulas in the importance of nutrition, ensuring they have the resources needed to support families during pregnancy and postpartum. To bolster their knowledge and skills, Lumpkins-Howard brought in the American College of Lifestyle and Medicine to teach doulas how to help clients develop better nutrition practices, including providing nutrition education classes for doulas and their clients.

“Our doulas here in northeast Ohio are super excited,” said Lumpkins-Howard. “They’re like, ‘I never thought about this, and it’s really helping me to change my family’s eating habits and share that information with my clients.’”

The CDC Foundation helps strengthen the connections made through the Hunger, Nutrition and Health in Pregnancy Action Network by hosting a quarterly virtual meeting where participants can learn more about the research that grounds this work, network with other nutrition and maternal health professionals, hear inspiring success stories and provide input that will help guide the network’s future actions and priorities.

Trusted support people, like doulas, are vital to improving nutrition for pregnant women and their families. The Action Network allows BBC to share this knowledge with other organizations, helping them deepen their understanding of the food and nutrition landscape and provide higher quality support to pregnant women and families.

“I’m grateful to have the opportunity to share what we’ve learned with so many other people in different parts of the country,” said Lumpkins-Howard.