HEALTHY MOTHERS HEALTHY BABIES THE MONTANA COALITION INC

Our main goal is to connect families and caregivers with the resources and systems they need to act as "brain builders" for babies and infants. This means listening to families and caregivers, collecting and disseminating quality information, and coordinating with systems professionals on the national, state, local and tribal levels.

HMHB is a hub of informed communications, collaborations and projects involving health care providers, early childhood professionals, families and caregivers, and other stakeholders to improve the health of Montana babies and their families. Among other things, we facilitate monthly calls of local early childhood coalitions across Montana, serve as fiscal agent for Montana Advocates for Children, coordinate with providers on perinatal substance use disorder prevention and treatment approaches and on Period of PURPLE crying education efforts, facilitate media campaigns to raise awareness of early childhood issues such as safe sleep, and host an annual perinatal mental health conference. We also facilitate storytelling and other healing arts through a Mother Love podcast and related events and a film called "Our Stories Are Our Healing," which allows parents and caregivers of young children to share their lived experiences. We hope to connect families and caregivers with resources and improved systems to promote health and well-being across the state.

Our capabilities mainly stem from our relationships across the state, which have been cultivated over time. HMHB has been entrusted with major statewide projects and campaigns, and has been asked to facilitate meetings and projects of various early childhood groups. Our board and staff are dedicated to our mission, and include professionals with backgrounds including health care, law, and social work.

HMHB's accomplishments include a statewide Safe Sleep campaign, the launch and maintenance of the Mother Love podcast, the creation of the film "Our Stories Are Our Healing," and successfully advocating for including "HOPE" criteria along with Adverse Childhood Experiences criteria in providers' screening tools. HMHB continues to maintain its Essentials program delivering car seats, cribs and care items to partner organizations across Montana, and coordinates with providers on both a perinatal substance use disorder prevention and treatment project and Period of PURPLE Crying education for new parents. And we continue to host our annual perinatal mental health conference, which is attended by over 200 people.

We are currently partnering with local early childhood coalitions to pilot a data dashboard including information points defined through a facilitated conversation with leaders and professionals across the state, as well as on a journey mapping exercise to determine what happens when a suicidal mother with a four-month-old baby calls for help in various communities. In addition, we are building a web application to guide people to pregnancy and early parenting services and family-friendly substance-free events in communities across the state, along with an associated magazine. And we are in the midst of developing a media campaign to encourage people to seek help if they have substance use disorders and are pregnant or new parents. In coming years, we hope to strengthen the connections between our healing arts efforts and our programmatic and advocacy work, and we hope to facilitate a perinatal mental health strategic planning session.