The Family Wellness Suite at Tremont Neighborhood Health Action Center reopened for in-person services on Wednesday, April 13, having been closed amid the pandemic during which time it provided virtual services only. The reopening coincided with the beginning of Black Maternal Health Week as well as the reopening of in-person services at the City’s other wellness centers which are located in East Harlem and Brownsville, Brooklyn.

 

Tremont Neighborhood Health Action Center, located at 1826 Arthur Avenue in Tremont, provides mothers and their families with a safe, welcoming, and supportive space where they can participate in a range of parenting and birthing classes, connect to community resources, and receive critical supplies.

Anita Reyes, assistant commissioner at the Bronx Neighborhood Family Wellness Suite bureau, welcomed Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the City’s health commissioner, Dr. Michelle Morse, chief medical officer and deputy health commissioner, to the center for the occasion.

 

Reyes mentioned a couple of the resources offered in terms of childbirth education. “We have parenting classes, as well as breastfeeding classes that we offer to the parents,” she said. “We also have free resources like cribs, and car seats distribution, as well as diapers. So, we give to those families in need.”

Reyes highlighted that during the pandemic, the center was still helping families get the resources they needed. “We did a lot of virtual work….and so, this week, we’re really excited for the Black Maternal Week,” she said. “That’s why we’re here. We’re reopening the family wellness suite so that all New Yorkers can have a place to come.”

 

Reyes said the Tremont site is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, and welcomes expectant mothers and families to come and obtain information and resources they may need. “We encourage everyone to please spread the word, let people know that we’re here to help connect people to the services,” she said before introducing Vasan on his first visit to The Bronx as the City’s new health commissioner.

 

For his part, Vasan said the reopening event was particularly meaningful to everyone at the City’s health department because it coincided with Black Maternal Health Week. “As a father of three, I remember how overjoyed my wife and I were when we learned we were going to have a baby,” he said.

 

“I also remember how much anxiety we felt and how unprepared we felt. After all, parenting is really hard and throws a lot of things at us, most of it unexpected, and no-one goes into it knowing everything.” The commissioner also said he remembered how much support he and his wife received from family, friends, and relatives and how it made a world of difference to them as they embarked on their journey into parenthood.

 

“Frankly, we’ve done it two more times since, and each time we’ve needed that support even though we’ve learned with each child,” he said. “So, I know the support that we [the City] can offer people in places like this, and it makes such a difference to getting families off to the best start they can.”

 

Vasan said the family wellness suites provided spaces for families to come together during pregnancy, after childbirth [and for infant health support], for free childbirth and safe sleep classes, crib distribution, doula support, yoga classes, and more.

 

“Having this event during Black Maternal Health Week is absolutely no coincidence,” Vasan said, adding that the wellness centers embodied the City’s commitment to reducing what he described as “the absolutely unacceptable inequities in maternal health.”

 

“In New York City, on average, the rate of pregnancy related deaths is 9.4 times higher for Black mothers compared to white mothers,” the health commissioner said. “This is consistently one of the starkest inequities we see in any health outcome in our city, and these outcomes are not driven by race, they are driven by structural racism.”

 

He then said the Adams administration and the health department were laser focused on closing those gaps. “That’s why the city is investing in resources and in programs just like this, including safe and respectful provider care, expanding our doula program citywide, neighborhood-based services like the ones you’re learning about today, and ensuring quality reproductive care.”

 

Vasan said more needed to be done to improve Black Maternal Health and committed to working to ensure all families had safe pregnancies and deliveries. Part of that work is related to the center’s ethos regarding the social determinants of health and maternal health.

 

“Food is a maternal health issue, housing is a maternal health issue, safety is a maternal health issue, economic security is a maternal health issue,” he said. “It is in place-based approaches like embodied here at the action center where we can support our new mothers, our families, holistically, upstream, to get them off to the best start possible.”

 

For her part, Morse said the center was one of the happiest places to be despite the challenges of COVID, and said she always felt cared for at the center because wellness was at the center’s core. “That’s why this is such a beautiful space for families to be able to come back to in-person, and be able to actually access the services,” she said.

 

The deputy commissioner built on what Vasan said in terms of the importance of Black maternal health and health inequity. “As a Black woman, myself, and as someone who is so honored to get to celebrate Black Maternal Health Week with all of you, this is urgent,” she said. “This is urgent and we have services that are really available to all members of the New York City community to try to address these challenges.”

 

“By resuming the opening of our direct, in-person services here at The Bronx Tremont Action Center, the family wellness suites are providing a range of resources that are vital to empowering people and families to provide the strongest start for their babies, before and after birth,” she said.

 

“The impact of this work is felt not only in the services we provide, but also in the gratitude that we receive from families and the conversations we have with families that use these services.”

 

Morse was asked at one point if the City had seen any improvements in Black maternal health over the years or if the situation was getting worse. “I think there are always silver linings when you’re trying to address really deep health inequities,” she said. “Some of the things that we’ve already seen is increased access to doula services, for example. We are really excited that over the coming years, we hope to see more progress in the specific health outcomes and again, I think, from our perspective, the work of health equity is a long-term investment and takes up quite a bit of a horizon to see improvements.”

 

During a tour of the family wellness suite with the health department delegation, one of the staff members highlighted how it was a warm and colorful facility that stood out from some of the other areas of the building and helped expectant mothers feel welcome and human. “We really try to emphasize that you are a person who matters and that someone will take care of you,” she said. Vasan agreed, remarking that it was a “beautiful place.”

She added that the wellness suite was also conveniently located for any expectant moms in the community who may work nearby and who could drop in with their pump attachments and breastfeed at the facility. The staff member later explained that one the rooms in the wellness suite was previously used for meditation classes and parenting classes and can fit up to 11 people at a time. She also mentioned that New York City Administration for Children’s Services was encouraging parents to make use of available parenting classes and to get their children vaccinated.

“We’ve had mommy yoga, we had regular yoga in this space, so we move it around, and when things [services] get too big, we hope to continue to grow [the family wellness suite] and they’ll [moms] be in a pretty, red room across the way,” she said, adding that the staff plan to rotate the services offered at the suite as they fit.

 

A number of vendors were also on site at the action center on the day offering various other support services to expectant moms in both Spanish and English.

 

In wrapping up her presentation, Morse concluded with a smile, “All you have to do is walk into the family wellness suite, your blood pressure will go down, you’ll find yourself start to smile, you’ll have a warm greeting from Eilish, who’s our research coordinator and I can tell you, you will feel better.”