18
COURIER LIFE, APRIL 15-21, 2022
BY XIMENA DEL CERRO
A cohort of women gathered
at the NYC Health and
Hospitals/Kings County
in Prospect Lefferts Gardens
after meeting with
their doctors on April 7.
They all had a few things
in common. For starters,
they were all expecting a
child — and they were all
about to fi nd out what benefi
ts they were entitled to
at a maternal health expo
sponsored by insurance
provider MetroPlusHealth.
“I don’t want insurance
bills to be my main worry
during my pregnancy,”
said Eulalie Decuir, 29,
who is in the second trimester
of her fi rst pregnancy.
“So many bills start
coming even before the
baby does.”
Insurance is a critical
factor in ensuring that
women receive the preventive
and medical care they
need, according America’s
Health Rankings,
the annual assessment
of the country’s health.
Compared with insured
women, uninsured women
have more disadvantages,
including inadequate access
to health care, lower
standard of care when in
the system, unmet need
for medical care due to
cost, and less use of recommended
preventive services,
among others.
According to to the nonprofi
t Kaiser Family Foundation,
birthing parents
often deal with medical
conditions such as complications
from childbirth,
pain, depression or anxiety
— all while caring for a
newborn. It can be a medically
vulnerable period
and many cases of maternal
mortality occur in the
postpartum period.
“Pregnancy is delicate,”
said Lyrdine Thimot, of
MetroPlusHealth, to the
expecting women at the
“Baby Bump” event. Thimot
encouraged women
to consider signing up for
health insurance, if they
did not have any, and seeing
about what MetroPlusHealth
could do for them.
“If you breastfeed, you
can get weak and that’s not
a good time to be receiving
calls from your insurance
company,” she said.
“But if you call me, it goes
straight to my phone. My
clients are mine, not some
other agent’s. You can and
should get comfortable
with someone specifi c.”
In total, the event saw
“135 baby bumps,” according
to Keisha Daniels,
manager of brand partnerships
and experiential
More than 100 moms-to-be attended MetroPlus Health’s April 7 Baby Bump maternal health expo at
NYC Health and Hospitals/Kings County. MetroPlusHealth
marketing at MetroPlusHealth
— six of whom gave
birth that very morning.
In additional to informational
packets, women
in attendance got to enter
to win one of eight raffl e
prizes, which consisted
of high chairs, play pens,
baby gyms and more. The
event was hosted in partnership
with CAMBA,
Storks Nest, the NYC
Health and Hospitals/
Kings County and the Zeta
Phi Beta Sorority.
“The doctors, patients
and staff were overjoyed
with positive energy,” said
Daniels, who further noted
that this was the company’s
fi rst in-person event
since the onset of the pandemic,
making its timing
all the more important.
“Expectant moms experience
a range of maternal
health needs during their
pregnancy. We want to ensure
that they receive all
the health resources to deliver
a healthy baby,” said
Daniels. “We look forward
to supporting mothers
and their maternal health
needs in our communities.”
Health
MetroPlusHealth maternal health
expo offers help to moms-to-be
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