Lifestyle
America is trying to solve the problem of maternal mortality through federal, state and local programs.
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — On the scene racial massacre it decreased districts in ashes 100 years ago, where wall paintings commemorate the once flourishing ” Black Wall Street“A black mother tries to keep other children from dying while they fight to bring latest life into the world.
Black women are 3 times more likely to be die consequently of pregnancy or childbirth as white women in Oklahoma, which consistently ranks amongst the top states in the country for maternal mortality.
“Tulsa is hurting,” said Corrina Jackson, who runs the local version of the federal Healthy Start program, coordinating needed care and helping women through pregnancy. “We’re talking about lives here.”
Across the country, programs in any respect levels of government—federal, state and local—share the same goals to reduce maternal mortality and close racial gaps. No one has all the answers, but many are making progress of their communities and leading the way for other places.
Jackson’s project is one of greater than 100 funded by Healthy Start, which has awarded $105 million in grants nationwide this yr. Officials call Healthy Start a significant part of the Biden administration maternal health plan.
Other approaches to the crisis include halving California’s maternal mortality rate through a company that shares best practices for treating common causes of maternal death and expanding New York’s access to midwives and doulas two years ago. Several states have passed laws this yr geared toward improving maternal health, including radical measure in Massachusetts. Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced greater than $568 million in funding to improve maternal health through activities akin to home visiting services and higher identifying and stopping pregnancy-related deaths.
At the local and national level, “we really need to identify those giving birth who are potentially at greatest risk,” said New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan, “and then provide care throughout their pregnancy.”
Healthy Start in Tulsa
In addition to coordinating prenatal and postnatal care—which experts say is crucial to keeping moms alive—local Healthy Start projects provide education about pregnancy and parenting and referrals to services for issues akin to depression or domestic violence. Local efforts also reach out to partners of women and children up to 18 months old. They give attention to issues that affect health, akin to transportation to appointments.
“We try to get them through the first trimester of pregnancy and then we work with them up until the day they’re born. Then we work with the babies to make sure they hit their milestones,” Jackson said.
Jackson received help from the local Urban League as a single mother and felt a calling to give back to her community. She has been involved with Healthy Start for greater than 25 years, first through the Tulsa Health Department and most recently through the nonprofit she founded, which received about $1 million in federal funding this fiscal yr.
“I treat her like a mom on this show,” Jackson said.
In the entire state of Oklahoma, the maternal mortality rate is roughly 30 per 100,000 live births, far higher than the national average of about 23. But in her quarter-century in office, Jackson said, there have been no maternal deaths amongst her clients.
Critical to Healthy Start’s success are care coordinators like Krystal Keener, a social employee in the obstetrics and gynecology clinic at Oklahoma State University, where clients receive prenatal care. One of her responsibilities is educating clients about health issues, akin to recognizing the signs of preeclampsia or how much bleeding is an excessive amount of after delivery.
She also helps with practicalities: Many clients don’t have cars, so that they call Keener after they need transportation to a prenatal visit, and she helps schedule it.
Along with the doctors, Keener serves as a patient advocate. One afternoon, Keener attended a prenatal visit for Areana Coles. A single mother, Coles had her 5-year-old daughter together with her, who was born prematurely and hung out in intensive care.
Coles, 25, said Healthy Start was “probably the best thing that’s happened in this pregnancy.” She called Keener an “angel.”
Together they handled several health issues, including dehydration and low potassium, which landed Coles in the hospital.
As Coles’ due date approached, Keener spoke about what to look out for during and shortly after labor, like blood clots and postpartum depression. She advised Coles to take care of herself and “give myself credit for the little things I do.”
During an ultrasound a number of minutes later, Coles saw Dr. Jacob Lenz indicate her unborn baby’s eyes, mouth, hand, and heart. He printed out a picture of the scan, which Coles immediately showed her daughter.
Keener said she’s glad Coles won’t have to give birth prematurely this time.
“You made it to the end of your pregnancy – hurray!” she told her client.
Coles smiled. “My body can do it!”
Improving health care
While programmes akin to Healthy Start give attention to individual patient needs, other initiatives ensure comprehensive quality of care.
California has the lowest maternal mortality rate in the country—10.5 per 100,000 live births, lower than half the national rate. But that wasn’t the case before the Maternal Quality Care Collaborative was formed in 2006.
Founded by Stanford University School of Medicine in partnership with the state, the initiative brings together individuals from every hospital with a maternity unit to share best practices for managing conditions that may lead to maternal injury or death, akin to hypertension, heart problems and sepsis.
“When you look at the maternal death rate in the United States compared to California, they were basically neck and neck until it was fixed,” said Dr. Amanda Williams, clinical innovation adviser for the collaboration. “At that point, they completely separated, and California started going down. The rest of the country started going up.”
The collaboration provides hospitals with toolkits full of materials, akin to multi-format care guidelines, best practices articles and slide decks that designate what to do during a medical emergency, how to form medical teams and what supplies to have on the unit. The collaboration also addresses issues akin to improving maternity care by integrating midwives and doulas, whose services are covered by the state Medicaid program.
Initially, some doctors resisted the enterprise, assuming they knew best, Williams says, but now that the collaboration has proven its price, there is much less opposition.
MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach began participating in the program around 2010. The partnership helps “look at all the research that’s out there,” said Shari Kelly, executive director of perinatal services. “It’s just really important to really understand how we as providers can make a difference.”
For example, if a lady loses a major amount of blood after a vaginal delivery, “we know how to activate what we call here the ‘code scarlet,’ which brings the blood to the bed,” Kelly said. “We can act quickly and stop any potential hemorrhage.”
She added that the collaboration also helped reduce racial inequalities, akin to by lowering the rate of cesarean sections amongst black moms.
In July, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed an initiative similar to the one in California focused on the quality of perinatal care nationwide: the first basic health and safety requirements for hospital obstetric and emergency medical services.
Experts say tackling maternal mortality at the national level requires tailoring solutions to the needs of individual communities, which is easier when programs are locally run.
New York City has a goal of reducing maternal mortality overall, specifically achieving a ten percent decrease in maternal mortality amongst black people by 2030. Statewide, black individuals are about 4 times more likely to die while pregnant or childbirth than white people.
The city is starting with low-income and social housing residents, amongst others. The New Family Home Visits Initiative provides pregnant women and those that have given birth with visits from specialists akin to nurses, midwives, doulas and lactation consultants. Vasan said that since 2022, greater than 12,000 families have received visits.
Nurse Shinda Cover-Bowen works for the Nurse Family Partnership, which visits families for two 1/2 years, long after pregnancy and birth. She said that “that consistency of having someone there, listening to you, guiding you through your mother’s journey, is priceless.”
Rooted in the community—and its history—is also key to Healthy Start’s projects. The lasting effects of racism are evident in Tulsa, where in 1921, white residents killed an estimated 100 to 300 black people, and destroyed houseschurches, schools and businesses in the Greenwood neighborhood. That’s where Jackson lives now, and where health care inequities persist.
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Being trustworthy is priceless to black women who may not trust the health care system, Jackson said. Plus, knowing the community allows for close collaboration with other local agencies to meet people’s needs.
Denise Jones, who signed up to Healthy Start in February, has struggled with anxiety, depression and drug addiction but has been sober since April.
By mid-July, her room was stuffed with baby gear—a crib, a bassinet, tiny clothes hanging neatly in the closet—in anticipation of her baby’s arrival. Jones, 32, was leafing through a baby book, pointing to the sonogram of her son Levi, who was due in a number of weeks.
She said she feels healthy and blissful thanks to the help she received from Healthy Start and Madonna House, a transitional housing program run by Catholic Charities of Eastern Oklahoma.
“I have professionals working with me and supporting me. I didn’t have that with my other pregnancies,” she said. “I am one with my baby and I can focus.”
When you consider how black men influence American culture, the modeling industry may not immediately come to mind. But from magazine covers to national campaigns to fashion runways, black male models are making waves in the fashion industry.
Even in case you do not know much about fashion, it’s value testing these famous black models whose biggest achievements modified the industry as we understand it. Here’s every black male model you need to learn about in 2024.
A transient history of black models in fashion
Even the least fashionable amongst us can easily name a couple of Black modelsreminiscent of Naomi Campbell, Tyra Banks and Iman. You might even think of the criminally underrated Donyal Luna, the star of the series documentary about supermodels on HBO. You’ll probably notice something that these names have in common: they’re women. And while we definitely don’t desire to undermine the enormous achievements of these black supermodels, it’s clear that not less than the American fashion industry has long preferred to open up its limited spaces for people of color to black women slightly than black men.
Early pioneers of black male modeling included Benin-born Djimon Hounsou, who rose to fame posing for designer Thierry Mugler, actor and NAACP Image Award winner Shemar Moore, and Ford model Boris Kodjoe. It can be a sin not to say the late Renauld Whitean iconic model and actor who died in 2024 after an extended profession of pushing boundaries in fashion. These and many other icons paved the way for today’s top black male models.
Most Influential Black Male Models
1. Tyson Beckford
If you have got studied the fashion industry, you’ll recognize Tyson Beckford as one of the most famous black male models of all time. The Bronx-born model first broke boundaries in the Nineteen Nineties, establishing himself as one of the first high-profile black American male models, starring in well-known campaigns reminiscent of the 1999 Guess Raw Denim ad.
Outside of fashion, Beckford has appeared in music videos reminiscent of Lizzo’s “2 Be Loved (Am I Ready)” and Mariah Carey’s “Infinity.” He also starred in movies reminiscent of “Into the Blue” (2005) and “Searching for Bobby D” (2005). Beckford even played himself in the modeling comedy Zoolander (2001), proving that even one of the best-looking men in the world knows higher than to take himself too seriously.
2. Alton Mason
The Nebraska-born runway model made history by becoming the first black model to walk in the Chanel show in 2018. Since then, he has been named Model of the Year by GQ Australia, was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list and has even branched out into acting.
At just 26 years old, Mason has already landed several major acting roles. He appeared in the 2022 TV series “Yara Shahidi’s Day Off” and most notably played the role of Little Richard in the biopic “Elvis” (2022). Now a longtime model and actor, we won’t wait to see where Mason’s many talents take him next.
3.Adonis Bosso
Our next breakthrough model comes from Ivory Coast and Canada. Adonis Bosso was working in retail at H&M when he landed his first campaign. This was at the same company, which meant an abrupt end to his days as a sales representative.
It was a stroke of luck not just for Bosso himself, but in addition for a lot of of the brands he would later pose for, including Armani Exchange, Dolce & Gabbana, Tom Ford, Vivienne Westwood, Thom Browne and Yeezy. On a more personal note, Bosso, 34, and his girlfriend, fellow model Slick Woods, welcomed a son named Saphir in 2018.
4. Armand Cabral
Armando Cabral, turned model and designer, was born in Guinea-Bissau but raised in Portugal. He began his first catwalk classes at the age of 17. This early preparation paid off just a couple of years later: Cabral signed a contract at the age of 21 and continued his profession walking or posing for a lot of major fashion brands, including Louis Vuitton, Balmain, Dries Van Noten and J. Crew Menswear.
Not content with remaining one of the most famous black men in fashion, Cabral took his fashion investments to the next level in 2009 with the release of his first footwear collection. He delved so deeply into the craft of shoe design that his work landed him a job in the African fashion documentary “Bangaology – The Science of Style” (2016) directed by Coréon Dú.
5. David Agboji
Like Cabral, Agbodji comes from West Africa (specifically Togo). The Togolese model’s profession began with a bang in Milan in 2010, where he opened and closed the Calvin Klein spring and summer collection show. Since then, Agbodji has walked in over 100 shows for brands reminiscent of Bottega Veneta, Fear of God and Zenga. If you are not into the runway, you could recognize Agbodji from his appearance in Lady Gaga’s music video “I Want Your Love” (2015).
All this experience has made Agbodji an authority on the experiences of Black models in the industry, and he has been invited to look in a range of short movies and videos on the topic, including “The Ever Changing Face of Beauty” (2012) and “Sea of Voices” (2020) . When he isn’t stomping down the runway or analyzing fashion on film, Agbodji is pursuing a second profession as a boxer and Muay Thai fighter.
The role of black male models in changing perceptions of masculinity and diversity
We probably needn’t let you know that traditional gender norms are likely to elevate a narrow, Eurocentric definition of beauty. These norms have each influenced and been shaped by the fashion industry, making a feedback loop of privilege for white models, designers, and journalists.
A presence on runways, magazine covers, red carpets, and movie screens, these black men and many others have challenged racist beauty standards and advocated for a more inclusive fashion landscape. Like their peers, these models prove that folks of any skin tone might be aspirational for consumers of all races.
Still, black models must deal not only with the fashion industry’s Eurocentric biases, but in addition with the quite a few stereotypes and false expectations that typically accompany black masculinity. This may mean that you just are expected to look tall and fit while being extra careful to not pose a threat, or taking risks with style without questioning your sexuality.
When you see a black model in a photograph or on a runway, you do not just think of an African-American model dressed in fashionable clothing. You are witnessing the culmination of a long time of individual and collective efforts to vary the face of fashion around the world.
Upcoming black male models to observe
1. Babacar N’doye
The London model debuted in 2018 at Burberry designer Christopher Bailey’s last show, but the Elite signature model was an enormous success last 12 months. In March, he posed for the cover of GQ France and has since appeared in campaigns for Burberry, Flâneur, Givechy and more.
2. Abdulaye Niang
This emerging model hails from New York and is signed to Next London, VISION Los Angeles and Berlin-based MINT Artist Management. Niang has walked the runway for brands like Gucci and John Elliott and appeared in campaigns for Zara, Helmut Lang and more, and we hope he’s just getting began.
3. De’Laney Ortiz
The Detroit-born model and Next Management signee has previously posed for leather brand Luar, appeared in the June issue of GQ South Africa, and starred in the 2021 Gossip Girl reboot. Whether she decides to stick to modeling or pursue acting, we won’t wait to see what Ortiz does next.
The future of black men’s representation in fashion
As more and more people call for greater diversity in all points of life, it is obvious that more and more black male models will turn out to be relevant in the coming years. No matter who they’re, the next generation of black men in fashion will undoubtedly have the trailblazers we discussed today who we are able to thank for the doors they left open behind them.
But fortunately, the next generation’s achievements won’t be limited by the same rigorous beauty standards that hampered the models of color who got here before them. The world is quickly adopting latest visions of masculinity, beauty and fashion. We cannot wait to see how these latest perspectives are embodied in the next wave of black supermodels, regardless of gender.
Lifestyle
You get a present, you get a present and also you get a present! That’s right, Oprah Winfrey is once more encouraging everyone to get ahead of their holiday shopping. When Mariah Carey dramatically announced the beginning of the vacation season, the queen of all media signed the Queen of Christmas’ declaration, freeing her “Favourite Things List” 2024.
“It’s time for your favorite things,” Oprah said in a video announcing the discharge of this yr’s list. “Every gift is a way to send a little bit joy and plenty of gratitude to the people in your life. I hope this list will make the busiest time of the yr a little bit easier for you and provide you with some ideas.
The legendary producer and talk show host’s annual list includes gifts for everybody, from the low-end to the high-end. From beauty to tech to food, the 2024 Favorite Things List contains a list of Black-owned brands value looking for this holiday season. While we encourage you to take a look at the entire Black-owned brands Oprah’s team has chosen this yr, listed below are 12 of our favorites from this yr’s list:
Telfar Puff Hooded Coat
In addition to her appreciation for his or her handbags, Winfrey highlights her love for Telfar clothing, especially theirs “Coat with a hood and down.”
“This trendy, oversized, unisex quilted nylon down jacket with hood will keep you warm all winter long,” said Oprah.
Brandon Blackwood Nia travel bag
While Brandon Blackwood’s eponymous brand is thought for its stylish small handbags, Oprah’s team took notice “Duffle Nia” a bag that she says is “Super soft, comfortable on the shoulder, with a cool design (and) a fashionable way to carry everything.”
Dungeon Forward HBCU Hats
Created to develop work directly inspired by and for the creative community. HBCU “The YARD” Hats by Dungeon Forward use “eye-catching graphics,” details and colours to pay “homage to the excellence of historically black colleges and universities.”
Cindy Liebel jewelry
Cindy Liebel reimagines timeless jewelry silhouettes for on a regular basis wear, offering pieces inspired by abstract lines and architectural motifs.
Reisfields Cement Collection candles
Made from natural earth pigments sourced from world wide, in small batch Reisfields “Signal Cement Collection” accommodates chemical-free scented candles that last over 90 hours.
Roq Innovation Headlightz Pom-Pom Cap
Stay warm and guarded during morning jogs and late evening runs with Roq Innovation jackets “Headlightz Pom-Pom Hat.”
“This good-looking bobble hat has a rechargeable light, making it perfect for walking the dog or jogging when the sun sets a little too early,” Oprah said on the list.
Le La Lo Mama + Me travel sweatshirts
Designed especially for fogeys traveling with children, And matching La Lo sweatshirts Help families travel in style while staying secure with distinctive design.
Litflaska
Combination of an insulated water bottle, Bluetooth speaker and portable charger Litflask smart water bottle makes it convenient to stay hydrated and luxuriate in without breaking your stride.
“The young founder of this company realized that everyone he knew carried three things with them, so he put them together,” suggests Winfrey. “Give it to friends and family – because the speakers connect, you’ll have a unique surround sound experience at your next gathering.”
Pattern Beauty Blow dryer
Designed specifically for individuals with kinky curly hair, but suitable for all hair types Pattern Beauty Blow dryer offers 4 attachments and different temperature settings, making the styling process smooth and painless.
People of gorgeous color
People from Color Beauty “Holiday Nail Polish Gift Set” offers three festive, non-toxic, vegan and cruelty-free nail polishes, suitable for manicures and pedicures.
Tonya’s Cookies – Pound Cake with Cream Cheese
Described as “moist, buttery and delicious”, Tonya’s Cookies “Cheese and Cream Cake” combines cream cheese and a touch of lemon to create an authentic Southern dessert.
AC Grill
Founded by comedians and barbecue enthusiasts Cedric the Entertainer and Anthony Anderson, AC Barbeque’s “Signature Gift Set” offers a variety of fragrant snacks and sauces that will assist you to diversify your grilling during your next cookout.
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Average cost in keeping with Apartments.com I’ll rent a one-bedroom apartmenttons in San Francisco is about $3,000 per 30 days. Brownstone Shared Housing has created a cheaper option: sleeping pods.
For $700 a month, San Francisco residents can rent a pod the dimensions of a double bed. The four-foot-tall pod has two fans, a mirror and a privacy curtain. The sleeping units are positioned in a constructing with shared toilets, storage and workspace. The price is ideal for beginner entrepreneurs to live some of the expensive cities in the USA, where the fee of living is 70% higher than the national average.
“I lived in the Presidio before and was kind of looking for cheaper options to continue working on what I wanted and working on open source projects” – Ben, resident and entrepreneur, he said
When the housing project gained popularity last yr, the town threatened to shut it down as a consequence of lack of proper permits. Brownstone Shared Housing co-founder James Stallworth said they’re forced to stop renting pods to potential residents until they receive the required permits from the town.
“There was never anything illegal in the pods. However, we did not change the use, because this building used to be a bank. So we went through this process for about a year. Meanwhile, the planning department at one point said we couldn’t list it because people were complaining, thinking we were renting illegal apartments,” Stallworth said.
Additionally, Stallworth said they should make some repairs to the constructing to comply with city safety standards. After a year-long process, the San Fransico Department of Inspections issued a letter of approval for the pods.
Stallworth said they’re creating additional living units in a bigger constructing scheduled to open early next yr.
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