The Impact of Covid-19 on Community Perinatal Doula Support Services for Black Women.

Objectives: To better understand the experiences of Black pregnant women during COVID-19, we examined Black pregnant clients' and doulas' experiences with perinatal support services amid COVID-19's social distancing protocols.

Methods: We used qualitative description, employing a social constructionist framework to interview 12 perinatal support doulas and 29 Black women who were pregnant or gave birth during the pandemic about their experiences during the pandemic, when social distancing was required.

Results: Three key themes were identified: (1) Clients experienced increased social isolation; (2) Doulas' exclusion from medical visits limited women's access to support and advocacy; (3) Doula support as a sisterhood helped clients mitigate effects of COVID isolation.

"They should've talked to us more": lay health advisors' experiences with community-engaged hypertension research.

Background: Lay health advisors (LHAs) are increasingly being used to increase patient and public involvement in research, disseminate health information, and work toward preventing health disparities within communities at risk. This research explored LHAs' experiences with training and recruiting for a hypertension research project which ended due to minimal enrollment.

Methods: The methodological design was qualitative description.

Community members' experiences training as medical journal reviewers.

Purpose: Although medical research dissemination is intended to benefit members of society, few members of society actually participate in the process of publishing findings. This study shares findings from community members' (including patients and the public) experiences being trained as medical journal reviewers.

Methods: We analyzed findings from two focus group interviews of community reviewers (N = 29) to identify themes in their experiences with the training program.

Community Members as Reviewers of Medical Journal Manuscripts: a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Community members may provide useful perspectives on manuscripts submitted to medical journals.

Objective: To determine the impact of community members reviewing medical journal manuscripts.

Design: Randomized controlled trial involving 578 original research manuscripts submitted to two medical journals from June 2018 to November 2021.

Experiences of Black women during pregnancy: The meaning of perinatal support.

This study describes findings of a phenomenological study of Black women's experiences with a community-based perinatal support organization based in Cleveland, Ohio. Twenty-five women participated in interviews after their babies were born about how the organization in general, and perinatal support professionals (PSPs) in particular supported them during their pregnancies and the meaning of that support. The overall meaning of perinatal support was described as easing participants' transitions into motherhood through reducing uncertainty, social isolation, and stress.

"I felt like it would've been perfect, if they hadn't been rushing": Black women's childbirth experiences with medical providers when accompanied by perinatal support professionals.

Aims: This study examined the nature and characteristics of Black women's interactions with medical providers during childbirth when accompanied by a perinatal support professional (PSP; similar to a doula).

Design: The design was qualitative, and a phenomenological approach was employed to examine the meaning of women's experiences.

Methods: We conducted in-depth interviews with 25 Black women enrolled in a perinatal support program in Cleveland, Ohio, in late 2017 and early 2018, exploring their interactions with medical providers, the meaning of their experiences, and the roles their PSPs played.

Paid sick leave and psychological distress: An analysis of U.S. workers.

Paid sick leave is increasingly identified as a social justice issue having important implications for health and wellness; however, little is known about its relationship to mental health. Data from the 2015 cross section of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS; 2015) were used to examine the relationship between paid sick leave and psychological distress during the last 30 days among N = 17,897 working United States adults. The 6-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6), a valid and reliable instrument for assessing psychological distress in population based samples, was used to measure the outcome variable of interest.

Effects of gender and level of parental involvement among parents in drug treatment.

Most studies of parents in drug treatment have focused exclusively on mothers, and few studies have examined the effects of parents' level of involvement with their children on the parents' drug use and psychological functioning, either before or after treatment. This study examined mothers and fathers (n = 331) who were parents of children under the age of 18; participants were sampled from 19 drug treatment programs across four types of treatment modalities in Los Angeles County. A majority of each group (57% of 214 mothers and 51% of 117 fathers) were classified as being highly involved with their children.