Happy Mother’s Day! Today, and every day, we wish all of the mothers and maternal figures a joyful and HEALTHY DAY!
We are truly grateful to YOU, our donors, grantors, volunteers, and friends for being part of the KinderSmile Foundation village, and helping us bridge the gap in access to care.
With your support, we continue to advocate on behalf of our children, perinatal mothers, and families, and fight daily to change the landscape of access to oral health care in our state.
Sadly, we are still in a maternal health crisis in New Jersey and nationally. Poor oral health has direct implications on premature births, preeclampsia, and low birthweight babies. Periodontal disease during pregnancy, more common in Black mothers, leads to poor maternal outcomes. Black women are more than twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. Raising awareness of dental care during pregnancy as a safe, effective, and recommended method of prevention, can lead to key public health improvements, especially when paired with a critical link to a Dental Home to achieve the set goals.
Thorough collaboration with over 80 maternal organizations, oral health education sessions to pregnant and recently postpartum mothers, and training sessions for the maternal health workforce including doulas, midwives, lactation consultants, and OBGyns, KinderSmile Foundation’s Perinatal Health and Wellness Program team strives to address these disparities.
KinderSmile Foundation’s Perinatal Health and Wellness Program breaks the dangerous cycle of untreated dental diseases by empowering uninsured and Medicaid-insured mothers, enrolled from pregnancy and to three years postpartum, with informative, personal, and culturally sensitive training about the importance of oral health and its impact on the developing fetus and young children.
KinderSmile Foundation’s Perinatal Health and Wellness Program Director and Community Health Workers deliver guidance on oral disease prevention, nutritional counseling, systemic diseases impacting mother and child, effects of tobacco and alcohol, and perinatal care, leading to maternal health and improved birth outcomes. Knowledge gained about oral hygiene practices empowers mothers, the matriarchs of families, to nourish a generation of children free of Early Childhood Caries, striving to reduce dental caries, the #1 epidemic of economically disadvantaged children.
In the spirit of KinderSmile Foundation, and in line with our focus on Education, Intervention, and Prevention, the Perinatal Health and Wellness Program provides a crucial link to a Dental Home for mothers and their children, starting at age 0 or the eruption of the first tooth, ensuring access to continuity of care regardless of insurance status. Qualified uninsured mothers receive free dental care at KinderSmile Community Oral Health Centers Bloomfield, Newark, or Trenton.
This Mother’s Day we are thrilled to welcome Arelis Martinez as our new Perinatal Health and Wellness Program Director. Arelis comes with ample experience in the maternal health field, being a certified perinatal doula, as well as a certified community-based doula trainer. Her previous roles included the oversight and coordination of a community doula program in collaboration with the local hospitals and family centers, and the delivery of educational opportunities for program staff and community members. She has been a seamless addition to our team, and embraces wholeheartedly KinderSmile Foundation’s focus of being in the community and for the community. Thank you for joining the team and for continuing the legacy of including oral health in the maternal health conversation!We are grateful to YOU, our donors, partners, supporters, and friends for helping us serve! Thank you for helping us advance our vision of a future where every child has access to a dentist and preventable dental diseases are eradicated. Your unwavering support and generosity are truly appreciated! #ItTakesAVillageKSF
