Mount Sinai Medical Students Study LSA Maternal Health Data

How are we doing? What’s changing? Where are we going? These are the kinds of questions medical students are trying to answer as they examine maternal health data from the Nursing program at LSA Family Health Service.

The agency’s nurses treat prenatal and postpartum mothers and their babies who have been referred by their doctors for ongoing care. Over the last five years, medical students from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have been culling data to understand the impact of the program on the health of mothers and babies.

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“We can use the data to try to develop more services and interventions for the women.”

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The research takes into consideration a range of health and social factors, such as gestational age, birth weight, mental health risk, diabetes and food insecurity. For example, more than a third of mothers reported that they have no one to call in times of crisis. Recognizing the high rate of social isolation can help our nurses better understand how to support the mental health of mothers in the program.

“This is a program evaluation to look at the high risk population served and the importance of the program in impacting the lives of women who have no one to turn to other than LSA,” said Dr. Elizabeth Garland of Mount Sinai. Dr. Garland is the Division Director for Preventive Medicine and Community Health and manages the maternal health research initiative.

Dr. Garland stressed the value of looking at data over a number of years to uncover health trends in the community. For example, our nurses knew that they were seeing more and more complex cases. The data shows that this is quantifiably the case, with increased rates of preeclampsia and cases with multiple diagnoses. “We can use the data to try to develop more services and interventions for the women,” said Dr. Garland.

The rich data has been presented at many national pediatric meetings, most recently at the New York State Pediatric Advocacy Coalition annual conference. Ultimately, the goal is to better serve mothers in our community and share what we’ve learned with others.

Photo by Micah Rubin