Webinar: Strength in Tiny Steps: Black NICU Family Circle
The early or emergency birth of a baby can be scary and overwhelming, but families with children in the Newborn/Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) don’t have to go through it alone. For African American families, there’s a free support group called Strength in Tiny Steps: Black NICU Family Circle.
Strength in Tiny Steps is a safe space for Black mothers who currently have, or previously had, children in the NICU. Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women, and having a baby in the NICU raises the risk of postpartum depression and anxiety.
The support group is led by two Black mothers, Dominique DjeDje and Summer McBride, who have had their babies in the NICU. Dominique’s daughter was born at 27 weeks and spent about five months in the NICU. “I was grateful for the medical team,” she says, “but there wasn’t really anything to support me in the mental/emotional piece.” Summer’s baby had a medical emergency and spent a month at the NICU.
Strength in Tiny Steps meets virtually on Tuesdays, from 10:00 to 11:30 am. (Register here or just click this link to go directly to the Zoom meeting on Tuesday.) They also meet in person at least once a month. For more information, contact 310-258-9677 or inquiry@openpaths.org.
The free service is a project of Open Paths Counseling Services, a counseling center based in Inglewood that provides affordable trauma-informed therapy in the community. Their services are offered in both English and Spanish.
LA Best Babies Network recently invited the founder of Strength in Tiny Steps to meetings of leaders in its network of home visiting organizations and Welcome Baby hospitals. Below is a recording of the presentation she gave on May 13, 2024, for home visiting program managers.
Watch the webinar recording here, and don’t miss the links to related resources below:
About the presenter:
Dominique DjeDje is a Community Health Worker and mother of two. Her daughter was born at just 27 weeks and spent months in the NICU, had numerous surgeries, and was transferred between three hospitals. This experience led Dominique to create Strength in Tiny Steps to offer both education and social-emotional support for Black mothers who have had babies in the NICU.
Related resources:
- Presentation slides
- Strength in Tiny Steps flyer
- NICU Families Support Groups
- Better Together: Support Services for African-American Moms and Families During and After Pregnancy
- Welcome Baby Book (chapter 3: NICU) (Spanish)
- LA Best Babies Parenting Resource Library (English) (Spanish)