 Think Tech Hawaii, civil engagement lives here. Aloha. I am your host, Winston Welton. I am delighted that you are joining us again today for this out and about show where we explore a variety of topics, organizations, and events with the people who fuel them in our city, state, country, and world. As a disclaimer, any views or opinions expressed by me are strictly my own and they are not connected with any organization. That said, joining me in the studio today, I am delighted to have Lisa Kimura, Executive Director of Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawaii. Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawaii is a local nonprofit organization that is part of a national network of organizations and individuals committed to improving Hawaii's maternal, child, and family health through collaborative efforts in public education, advocacy, and partner development. Today, the National Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition is a recognized leader and resource in maternal and child health, reaching an estimated 10 million healthcare professionals, parents, and policy makers to its membership in over 100 local, state, and national organizations. So with that said, welcome to the show and thanks for being my guest today. Yeah, thanks for having me. That's a huge number of people that you're reaching, 10 million nationwide. Nationally. Nationally. Yeah. How about locally? Locally, yeah. We reach about 1,000 people a year on direct service levels. So there's a combination of programs that we deliver, mother's care services that we offer, and then advocacy that we conduct all year round. Yeah, I was just looking at some of these really interesting things that you have on here, some programs that we'll get to, but you work with people before, during, and after pregnancy and childbirth. You have programs and services like one's Cribs for Kids, Pico Pals, Mother's Care Services, Parent Workshops, Text for Baby, the Perry Natal Advocacy Network, and other topics like newborn care, postpartum depression, breastfeeding, and a lot more. Yes, it goes on and on. A lot of that. So how big is your office? How big is your staff? We have seven people, part-time and full-time, on staff with us. And so it's a combination of people that are delivering the programs, people that are working in the back office, and then we also have two licensed clinical social workers who are in our office that work specifically with moms who are dealing with maternal mental health issues. So moms that may be having postpartum depression or anxiety, pregnancy loss or infancy loss, sometimes just the challenges that come up for oneself. Becoming a mom, it's very, very substantially life-changing. And so the transition isn't always easy for people, and so our therapists are able to help bridge that for moms. That's great to know that that resource is there, because I think a lot of the times we're taught that, oh, this is the happiest time you're supposed to be overjoyed. And sometimes you may get very confusing feelings, like I guess the most famous poster child for that would be Brooke Shields, I'm guessing. And then other people that you have like, who's the one that jumped on the couch, Tom Cruise saying, oh, it's just all in your head, but obviously it's not all in your head. Right, and the problem is trying to reconcile what the expectation is versus the reality. And not only is it so much more work and more effort and more emotional and physical labor than you definitely probably expected, but it's not always an instant bonding thing. I mean, sometimes there's a process, if you're physically recovering from childbirth or your baby doesn't get to come home from the hospital, maybe because they're so ill or fragile, it's not easy to start off in that happy bubble that a lot of people expect to. Yeah, it's a good point, because we have this unrealistic expectation of motherhood and childbirth in the whole nine yards, I think in this day and age when all we have to do is go back a hundred years when childbirth was and pregnancy was a terribly risky thing. Yeah, you have a very, very likely chance of mortality, so certainly that has improved a lot and the family structure has changed a lot too. So in some regards, although maybe our public health has improved or our outcomes have definitely improved, but our models have changed in terms of the family unit. So necessity a lot of times have two parent households working. And so the challenges of childcare, the fact that we don't have paid family leave options in this state or at the federal level makes it very, very difficult for people. Oh yeah, because as we were talking right before, you know, we did have the village before and I was impressed when I traveled in some countries that are lower income. They have a much better support network, I think they have aunties and grannies and great aunties and cousins. And you you almost sometimes I think get to live with the one you like to take care of you. Absolutely, there's a structure in place for postpartum support. So moms are physically and emotionally nourished afterwards so that they can recover, they can be a full participating mom and being able to be feeling confident in herself. But then also just having that normal childcare. So exchange of the childcare labor is something that is common in other places. So if mom needs to go to work, there's a family or a village of support to help her with that. And so you see about a thousand clients that you could help directly every year. Are they mostly all women or do you have a combination of women and men? It definitely runs the gamut. So I would say the majority is most definitely women. And in terms of people who reach out to us and ask questions or engage with us is 97% female before, during and after pregnancy. But with that said, programs like our Pico Pal's program, which is 12 weeks of new parents support, oftentimes our weekend groups or our weeknight groups have both moms and dads participating together, which is very crucial to have everybody in the household kind of going through the same experience and evolving together. So tell us, how does this organization, how did it start? Where does it, where does it get funded from? And who are you allied with that are some of your partners? Sure. Well, in 1981, the National Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies was first established. And so it came out of the Surgeon General's warning on infant mortality. And so it was such a problem. And we, as a wealthy, healthy, supposedly nation, should be able to be able to be doing a better rate or a better job at keeping our rates of mortality low than we were. So the National HMHB was founded and then locally in different states and different municipalities, local HMHB, HMHBs popped up, including ours. So we've been around, this is our 26th year that we just finished. And so it's been, it's been a wild ride for us as far as growth and just seeing how much opportunity there is to impact the outcomes for moms, the experience for moms and dads too. I mean, certainly they're absolutely part of the equation too. And their needs are just as important because they're helping to support moms and babies. And where does the funding come from for the organization? Most of our funding is actually from private foundations, as well as government contracts. And so we work very closely with Department of Health to, for example, we have a mother's care phone line, which is available Monday through Friday in the message service after hours, answering questions, making referrals, finding contacts, helping people get on WIC or helping people get connected with quests so that they can have health insurance for their pregnancy. That's a service that we provide a partnership with Department of Health. But a lot of our other programs are mostly funded by foundations. And then we also do a lot of private fundraising as well. You mean like the Gates Foundation? Yeah, we have not had funding from them yet, but just like that. So Family Foundations, locally the White Community Foundation, and a lot of the funds that they manage. So you've got seven staff there, two licensed social workers, and how long have you been involved in the organization? I'm just about to make six years there. Oh, OK. So a substantial period of time for the organization. Yes. And it's been nice. I mean, I got to start right after having my second child. I really felt like as from a personal place, I wanted to be doing more for moms and babies specifically. And I felt that the experience that I had had, you know, I'm a very fortunate privileged person, comparatively speaking, in a lot of ways. And the experience that I had still was not what one would hope. And so part of it is education. Part of it is access to resources. Some of it is expectations. And but marrying all those together, I felt like if I, from a very, very passionate place, can have a role in making that happen, that would be my dream. And so here I am. Well, and I know the organization is incredibly fortunate to have someone of your caliber and skill and probably the same also for all of your staff members who are just completely dedicated to the mission of this organization. You mentioned about the mother's care line. Can you tell us about that a little bit more and what is that? Is it something that people just call in on or is it a 24-hour thing and say my baby's crying or it has a fever? Or how does that work? Yeah, so it is through business hours, we have staff answering it and then we have message service after hours and we return calls. So basically a warm line function. And a lot of the calls we get are very much urgent need-based. And so sometimes it's that someone has just found out they're pregnant but they don't have health insurance. That's the time in which they realize, oh my gosh, I really do need this right now. And so we get those kind of calls and get them connected as quickly as we possibly can. We're very fortunate in this state, as far as Medicaid goes, that women are able to be insured and having health insurance is going to dramatically change the outcome of their pregnancy and their baby's health. And so we want moms getting insured as quickly as possible. So it's not the same in every state I take it. Oh no. So if you find out you're pregnant here and you say, wow, I need to get pre-native vitamins, I need to up my game, I need to maybe even quit drugs or something like that or find out about anything and you don't know. Yes. They can call your number. Yeah. And so yeah, we'll get calls everything from looking for diapers or car seats or looking for how do I find childcare because I'm going back to work or we get calls about breastfeeding a lot. So breastfeeding is an incredibly challenging task, although it's very natural and you would expect it to come naturally, but it doesn't very often. And so we get a lot of questions asking the mechanics on what's going wrong or what can I do, but also sometimes even advocacy. So a mom who is being, let's say discriminated against in the workplace, we get some of those calls. And so she wants to know what her rights are, how to advocate for herself, is she going to lose her job, does she have rights and so we're able to support those questions. Wow. Yes. Things that you don't even think about when we're doing this. What is Hawaii's law? If you're, if you're, if you're pregnant, is it considered a disability? Are you allowed a certain amount of time off after a pregnancy? Is the father allowed a similar amount of time off? So, so two parts to that. So if you are pregnant and you're experiencing problems with your disability, I'm sorry, problems with your pregnancy that would cause a disability, make you unable to work, we do have temporary disability insurance that will cover people up to a certain percentage of their salary. So it's very helpful to get them through those times. And for moms who have given birth, the birth mother, so if we don't have it for adoptive situations or for foster parents. Do not. Do not. We also don't have it for fathers, but moms do get between six to eight weeks off with temporary disability insurance. So she gets 58 percent of her wages replaced. It's great. It's helpful. But one, there's a big part of the population that doesn't get it. Fathers don't get it certainly. And sometimes, too, a mom I mean, mom really needs that time to physically recover from childbirth. But often that's really not enough. I mean, quite honestly, it's not at all enough time. And when you're talking about going back to work, when you've got a newborn child who is completely dependent on you for survival, one, it's just not right that we as a modern society are making parents have to face this difficult situation. But you know, moms are going through so much stuff, too. Dads are going through stuff, too. And when we make the expectation that women are going to be the provider or the child care provider, it really puts things out of balance in terms of what our expectations are for dads. They may want to be involved, but when we don't make it economically feasible, then it's just not even a reality. And I suppose some advanced companies do offer paternal leave. They do. And a reasonable maternal leave. Yes. I cannot imagine giving up an infant at six weeks. And didn't it used to be very recently just two weeks or something insane? Well, so some people, although TDI is supposed to be afforded to everyone who's working in Hawaii, there are often sometimes when it falls through the cracks or people are not considered eligible for TDI, so they get absolutely nothing. It's it's really criminal, isn't it? It's not fair. And honestly, one out of four American women in this country go back to work within two weeks of giving birth, which is insane. One out of four. Boy. And then that bleeds through. Probably there's health considerations for both mom and baby for mom and baby for that the rest of child's life. I could just imagine from every number of possible outcomes in that you can probably speak very well to that. Do you have regular conferences that people could go to if they wanted to find out more information or support your organization? How would they get in touch with you anyway? Well, one thing that we do offer is the Perinatal Advocacy Network. And so this is a network that is statewide. We do via Zoom conferences for neighbor island attendees so that they can get involved with the legislation, with initiatives that are taking place. And it's a very grassroots structure. So nobody's left out. You don't have to be somebody important to be part of it. You just have to be someone who cares. So I could be just carrying Winston-Wilts that wanted to say, we need six months minimum paid full pay for our new mothers and new fathers. And fathers. Like what is it in Sweden? I'm I'm guessing Sweden is as good as it gets. Yes. So many Scandinavian countries and most of Europe between one to two years per parent and you can take those consecutively. One to two years per parent. And it's no wonder that they have advanced modern societies. Better outcome, lower mortality rate, better breast feeding rates. Happier families. I just watched a very interesting, I don't know if it was a TED Talk or something on the internet about how men are being expected of men to take care of their kids in Sweden. That's the changing cultural point that when we make it equitable and we make it financially possible. Exactly. Because most men do want to spend that time. They just simply can't. And as things change, suddenly the workplace expectations change too. And it becomes more acceptable for dads to step up and take that role. Well, and I think it's something that, you know, we I think a lot of the times we can look towards Scandinavia as a really good role model for a lot of things. And we have other nations where we can look for bad things, but we don't have looked that very far here, especially when we're having one out of four going back to work in two weeks. It's heartbreaking. It really is. I cannot. I just can't fathom it. And but, you know, obviously, so we have some good role models and those are some of the things that we discuss maybe in the Perry, NATO advocacy network. Yes. And what's Perry, NATO again for those of us who aren't fluent in life. Yeah, exactly. So kind of the spectrum of pregnancy and postpartum, all that all of that time of becoming a mom and giving so Perry is like around around birth. Conception, pregnancy, birth, everything. OK, so the full spectrum of that. And that's where people can get involved with your group. And if they want to go on your website while we're on our break, what would they go to? Yes, hmhb-hawaii.org. Hmhb-hawaii.org, OK, where you're doing lots of great work. So as you can hear, this is a very interesting and important topic. I mean, we're talking about the future of our entire society and how we treat our kids and their parents and our newborns and our new moms and dads. So we are taking a short break. I'm out and about. I'm not out and about. Well, I am out and about. I'm Winston Welch on out and about on the Think Tech Livestreaming Network series. And I am delighted to be talking with Lisa Kimmer, the executive director of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies. We will be back in a minute for more of Out and About. So stay tuned for more of this story. I want to invite all of you to talk story with John Wahee every other Monday here at Think Tech Hawaii. And we have special guests like Professor Colin Moore from the University of Hawaii who joins us from time to time to talk about the political happenings in this state. Please join us every other Monday. Aloha. Hey, Stan, the energy man here on Think Tech Hawaii. And they won't let me do political commentary. So I'm stuck doing energy stuff, but I really like energy stuff. So I'm going to keep on doing it. So join me every Friday on Stan the Energy Man at lunchtime, at noon, on my lunch hour. We're going to talk about everything energy, especially if it begins with the word hydrogen. We're going to definitely be talking about it. We'll talk about how we can make Hawaii cleaner, how we can make the world a better place. Just basically save the planet. Even Miss America can't even talk about stuff like that anymore. We got it nailed down here. So we'll see you on Friday at noon with Stan the Energy Man. Aloha. We're back. We're live. I'm Winston Welch, and this is Out and About on the Think Tech Live Streaming Network series. Lisa Kimura, Executive Director of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition is our guest today. And as we were talking, this organization has a wonderful mission for fostering excellence in care before, during, and after pregnancy and childbirth. With different programs that you have, we talked about one, which was the Perinatal Advocacy Network. And that's more kind of your, I'm going to call it your pack, but your public advocacy, your public affairs. Our way to let the public know what's going on, how to get involved, what bills are coming up for the legislative session, that type of thing. Do you post that stuff online as well? We do. And social media is generally the way that we get most of our information out, just because it's so accessible to people. So that's the place during ledge session where people might see what bills we're supporting, when the hearings are, what kind of testimony that we need, and where to submit it. Who are your partners in this, who are your advocates in this that say, you know what? Let's lead the way in Hawaii. Let's demand six months of paid maternity leave at 100% of your salary. We have been working with the Hawaii Working Families Coalition, which is a coalition that we developed a many, many different nonprofit organizations, some small businesses and some individuals who are just committed to helping get this passed in this state. And so the one real key thing that we're working on this year is getting more business outreach, because sometimes people, when they hear about it, it sounds like a great idea. Sure, I'd love to get wage replacement, but that sounds way too expensive. And that tends to be the first thing that people say. So the reality is, though, if we have a universal social insurance model, similar to how everybody's got to pay car insurance, then when everybody's paying in, I mean, logically, the cost is very low. But the actual actuarial studies that we've done have shown the cost is less than $5 a month to receive 16 weeks wage replacement for everybody. And that's only 16 weeks. That's only four months. Which is only four months. You're right. It's a start towards two years, towards this, towards civilization. What do you find that of your of your clients that come to you, what percent of them are able to stay with the baby for, say, six months? It does really depend. And the audiences that we serve are very varied. So some of our efforts, historically and currently to date have been focused on the families with the worst outcomes and the most disparate outcomes. And typically they tend to be low income and have other high risk situations such as homelessness or domestic violence or substance use. And because those are very complicating factors for premature births or mortality, we really focus efforts very targeted in those populations. With that said, though, the challenges that new parents face are very universal. And so our PicoPals groups are designed for all moms of all walks of life. And those groups take place in their local areas. Tell us about the PicoPals. Yeah, what's amazing about it is so it's 12 entire weeks of new parents support. And it's using a trained facilitator who has gone through a whole half day training that we conduct on facilitation skills, positive role modeling, positive communication, motivational interviewing, and really looking from a strength based perspective rather than instead of focusing on what's going wrong and why parenthood is so stressful and why, you know, or having such a difficult time, instead it's about looking at what's going well for you and helping that to grow. And when you're sitting on a group of your peers, it's the same group every single week for 12 weeks. As you grow together and meet together, you really, I mean, the bonding that takes place is so heartwarming for me to see. And they just trust each other. They're willing to share things that they may not tell anyone else in their life. Sometimes they just feel so bad about it that they don't know that these feelings are totally normal and they might be scary feelings sometimes. But to not have anyone else they can talk to is even more isolating and stigmatizing. And so being able to have people that they can share this with and know that, hey, we're not judging you. This is normal. And oh, well, your experience in that. Hey, guess what? So am I. And having that is so reassuring for moms. And is that is that a mom's and dad's thing or? Yes. And so usually, so what happens usually during our weekday groups, it's usually just moms and our weekend and weeknight groups tend to be coed. And they just have a very different feel and flavor to it. But it's just as beneficial. And for those couples that I see that come, they're having conversations and sparking conversations that might not have happened naturally on their own. And again, a lot of times they don't have other couples telling them, like, listen, it's going to be stressful. You guys are probably going to be fighting when you're really, really tired. Don't worry, everyone does. And just to know that and know that they're not abnormal, that they're not bad parents is just just having that reassurance can be a game changer or something like, oh, well, we decided Jonathan Jonathan changes the baby and I feed the baby or when we find we're getting cranky, we realize that we need to eat something or or whatever it is. Or maybe I'm you know, I'm feeling whatever it is, or you might be even, you know, is my baby supposed to hold up his head already. And you think, no, no, not yet. Exactly. Yeah. And when they look at each other and their babies every single week or growing together and developing together and they can watch those milestones, it's just and I bet this this group continues on after the 12 weeks and that might you might still have these Peacopals folks that are going on when they're when they're cakey or two or three or four or five. Our first cohorts have their babies are just turning two now. And so just seeing that they just they send us pictures sometimes of their get togethers and I love seeing that knowing that they're still together. And this is a is this a Hawaii specific program. So originally there's a program in Seattle called Peps, which is the program for early parent support. And they've been doing this for close to 40 years. And so when we came up with this idea, we really wanted something that was entirely focused on that transition to parenthood. And so it's focused specifically on babies zero to four months old parents of babies zero to four months old specifically. So Peps has been doing it for so long. They know so well what works. We were able to get trained from them and license the curriculum from them, bring it here, localize it a bit. And it's just been a really nice transition. That's three to four months old, but you're going younger than that. You're going basically newborns, aren't you? Yeah, zero to four months. So anywhere within that, they sometimes call it the fourth trimester because babies is what's known as the fourth trimester is still a huge period of development and very challenging time. Like the kangaroo comes up, but it goes back in the pouch because it's still as babies are completely dependent on us for their care. So let's say there's a difficult situation. Maybe a mom's on drugs or maybe has too much to drink or there's some violent situation, but she's afraid to go to someone. She doesn't want to call the cops because of a lot of different reasons. Can they come to you? Is it a confidential situation? And then you are able to refer in such a way where we say, look, we're not going to arrest you. We want to support you in this pregnancy. We have a place you can go or we have monies or different types of resources to support you. Yep, everything that we do is confidential. We do not disclose information except in mandatory reporting situations. Yes. But again, our therapists are completely confidential and so people can get serviced. If they call us and have those immediate needs, we're there to serve them as soon as we can without judgment. OK, and I'm sure you've heard everything out there. It's been all, yeah, there's a lot of stuff. All across the spectrum, but you get a lot of joy out of this too because you're able to see people that maybe came to you with more issues and then have them go through some of these other wonderful programs that you have and come out the other side a stronger, healthier, not only parent but individual, then willing and able to share that with who's coming next down the line. Exactly. And I think of my mother when she had her kids, she was all alone. I mean, there was the lady that lived downstairs, but she said, you know, I didn't come with a manual. She had Dr. Spock and Dr. Spock had different ideas on what we have right now. I imagine a lot of people still have a copy of Dr. Spock lying around, but you're like the modern online live version of Dr. Spock plus a whole lot more. Yeah. And I think what's important too is just offering people the most current modern information that we have available and allowing them to be empowered to make their own decisions. So you've also got parent workshops. Is that just teaching people like this is how to burp a baby and this is how to babies cry and then they want food and that type of thing. We've done stuff like that. We've done making your own baby food workshops because sometimes people, even the idea of transitioning to solid food sounds overwhelming to them and they want to be healthy. They want to get them started with good, healthy habits. But, you know, maybe they've never even had kale. So what the heck? How do I make this kind of healthy food for my kids? So just helping with those really basics and how, for example, if your your WIC checks will pay for that, that you can afford a healthy meal for you and your baby. And WIC is Women, Infants and Children and it lets you get some some free or free food. That's like food stamps. Yep, healthy foods and, you know, formula if needed for baby. But they also do a ton of breastfeeding support too. And you'll help with all of that. Now you have an innovative program called Text for Baby. Yes. That is T-E-X-T and then the number four and then baby.org or text baby to 511-411. Yes. This is a way I've been guessing for more millennials and younger to reach out and communicate in a way that's comfortable for them. Right. Yeah, in a way that's natural. I mean, 99% of young people today have smartphones and women of child-bearing age have smartphones. And so it's one way that we can reach them because texting works a whole lot better than making phone calls with this generation. But also there's an app component so with their smartphone they can check. They can see how big their baby is this week or things to ask the doctor about or warning signs of early labor and what they should look out for so that it's proactively letting them know what's going on and what they should be aware of. That's a wonderful program and a way that you're reaching out and meeting that need in the way that's going to reach the people that need to be breached in that way. And then you have another one last one we'll touch on is the cribs for kids. So you've got obviously it's probably cribs and diapers and bottles in the whole nine yards. And the thing about it that's so surprising to most parents is that the most common cause of infant mortality is sleep-related. And so we have about a baby every other week in this state that passes away from sleep-related causes. Oh, it's tragic. It's shocking. And most people are unaware they're not aware of what the real risks are. I mean, nobody would ever take their baby in the car without a car seat. But they might have their baby sleep with a pillow and blanket having no idea what the suffocation hazard is. So really important point that people can go on your website find out a lot of this information is things that we wouldn't think we think, oh, that's cute to put that there. But in fact, it may not be. Exactly. And so things that we wouldn't even think about. But people can also maybe donate money to your organization and there's a wish list there that says, you know, Mary needs a crib and 200,000 diapers and all of that. Yeah, absolutely. We do actually have a really cool campaign this month for the month of December. So we have some I should have brought them, but some cards, holiday cards is actually a breastfeeding elf who's talking about nourishing and delighting in holiday chair. So we have those for sale. But we also have them as a gift for people that donate online this month. And we also have some limited edition 2018 Holiday Stuff Toys that make a really nice gift. But again, with donations through our website, we're giving those a way to people as a thank you. And that's hmhb-hawaii.org and where they can give and donate, find out all kinds of information. So it's an absolutely great way to support your organization and the excellent work that you do. And it's a it's a it's a relief knowing we have folks like you, good folks out there looking out for we enjoy what we do. And honestly, it's such a pleasure to be able to do it. Well, if I'm fortunately, we are out of time. So maybe you'll come back again and maybe we could bring back some Pico Powell graduates or something else that we've had on the show. But unfortunately, we are out of time and have to wrap it up. If you have had a baby, if you have been a baby, if you want to be a baby, if you act like a baby, go to Healthy Mother's Healthy Babies hmhb-hawaii.org and donate and help them with the great work that they do. I am Winston Welch. This has been a very special edition of Out and About on the Think Tech Live Streaming Network series where we have been talking with Lisa Kimour, the executive director of Healthy Mother's Healthy Babies and the very interesting work she and her staff do there. And I hope you've enjoyed this much as I have. Thank you for tuning in. We welcome your feedback. Thanks to our broadcast engineer who today was Robert McLean and our technical producer, Ray Sengling. Jay Fidel puts it all together for us. As does Carol Mon Lee. For those of you, this is our last one of the year. So happy Hanukkah that's already passed. Happy Diwali, happy Kwanzaa, Merry Christmas and any other holidays that I might miss. Oh, for our pagan Wiccan friends, happy solstice. Probably the forbearer of all of those other ones. So I will see you every other Monday at 3 p.m. for more of Out and About in 2019. So have a wonderful end of your year and be safe and we'll see you later. Aloha everyone.