Elevance Health Foundation Grant will Expand Count the Kicks Program in 10 States
Elevance Health Foundation is growing its partnership with Healthy Birth Day, Inc. through a $1 million grant that will expand the Count the Kicks stillbirth prevention program in 10 states. Partner states include California (Fresno, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties), Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
In 2023, Elevance Health Foundation and Healthy Birth Day, Inc. (creator of Count the Kicks) partnered to expand stillbirth prevention education and awareness in seven states, reaching thousands of expectant parents and healthcare providers. Since the beginning of the partnership, Count the Kicks has heard from five families in grant-funded states who have shared how Count the Kicks saved the life of their baby.
Georgia mom Jasmine Evans, for example, shared how Count the Kicks helped empower her to speak up and get checked when she noticed a change in her son Michael’s normal movement patterns.
“Thankfully my sweet Michael Jamari was born safely and only needed to spend a short amount of time in the NICU. My doctor told me that my baby would not have survived the night if I had not come to the hospital. I am grateful my doctor educated me with Count the Kicks and listened to my concerns because both saved Michael’s life,” Jasmine said.
Goal: To Improve Birth Outcomes and Save Babies Across the U.S.
Through this new two-year partnership with Elevance Health Foundation, the Count the Kicks program will focus on community engagement through conferences and meetings with healthcare providers. Maternal health professionals in all 10 states will also have access to order FREE at-a-glance educational materials to help them have a conversation about fetal movement monitoring with expectant parents. The organizations will also focus on improving birth outcomes for rural families through digital education, transit ads, and alternative counting methods, like movement monitoring bracelets.
“As the Elevance Health Foundation works to create equity in maternal healthcare, we are encouraged by the impact that our partnership with Healthy Birth Day has made on the lives of families,” said Shantanu Agrawal, M.D., Chief Health Officer of Elevance Health. “By expanding Count the Kicks education in partnership with Healthy Birth Day, we have the potential to reach 900,000 people with trainings and access to digital health to improve maternal and child health outcomes.”
Elevance Health Foundation and Count the Kicks will also work to address social determinants of health through a 4-question survey for all expectant parents utilizing the free app. The questions focus on barriers to accessing resources and connect app users who are in need of additional assistance and support to free or reduced-cost resources in their local community. These resources include things like diaper banks, food banks, housing assistance, and more.
Impact of Stillbirth
There are more than 21,000 babies born still every year. In the U.S. the annual number of stillbirths (defined as the loss of a baby at 20 weeks or greater during pregnancy) exceeds the top five leading causes of deaths among children aged 0-14 years combined, including unintentional injuries, congenital anomalies, preterm birth, homicide, SIDS, and heart disease. Racial disparities persist, and a disproportionate number of babies are born still to Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Black, and American Indian or Alaska Native families. For Black and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander women, 1 in every 101 pregnancies will end in stillbirth.
Count the Kicks is proven to improve birth outcomes for moms and babies. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology published research that shows a more than 30% reduction in Iowa’s stillbirth rate in the first 10 years of the Count the Kicks stillbirth prevention program at a time when America’s stillbirth rate remained stagnant. Through this collaboration, Elevance Health Foundation is hoping to expand on the success the program has seen in Iowa. The Count the Kicks program hopes to reduce the national stillbirth rate by 32% as they have seen in Iowa, which would save 7,500 babies every year in the U.S.
About Elevance Health Foundation
Elevance Health Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Elevance Health Inc. The Foundation works to advance health equity by focusing on improving the health of the socially vulnerable through partnerships and programs in our communities with an emphasis on maternal child health; substance use disorder; and food as medicine. Through its key areas of focus, the Foundation also strategically aligns with Elevance Health’s focus on community health and becoming a lifetime, trusted health partner that is fueled by its purpose to improve the health of humanity. To learn more about Elevance Health Foundation, please visit www.elevancehealth.foundation or follow us @ElevanceFND on X and Elevance Health Foundation on Facebook.
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