George Mason University graduate pupil Archana Vardhan was one among 20 college students nationwide chosen for a summer season fellowship by way of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) referred to as the Graduate Student Epidemiology Program. Her space of experience is the psychological and bodily well being of postnatal moms of shade.  

“There have been research studies on prenatal mothers, but not much data is available for postnatal mothers,” stated Vardhan, who’s engaged on a grasp of public well being diploma within the College of Public Health. “I look at the challenges [Black and African mothers] face—discrimination and other barriers—and what education models can be provided to them for their optimum health and mental peace.”  

Vardhan, who can also be a mom to 2 young children, stated the schooling fashions created for the postnatal moms will embrace how they will handle themselves after supply, what natural treatments can be utilized along with the therapy if they’ve any medical issues, and the way they will advocate for themselves. 

In addition to her graduate research, Vardhan, who’s initially from India and got here to Virginia in 2013, works full-time as a scientific analysis specialist at Inova Health System. 

For her fellowship, she was assigned to work with a well being division in Portland, Oregon, the place her position included creating a survey about maternal well-being and designing an schooling program.  

“We built a questionnaire, which had a very good response from [around] 110 mothers. Then we did a qualitative analysis. My role was to design the survey and do the qualitative analysis and build an education model on whatever results I get from the survey,” she defined. 

Vardhan additionally enrolled in the summertime Global and Community Health (GCH) course GCH 609: Community Assessment and Partnership with assistant professor Marybeth Mitcham, the place the coursework completely aligned with the duties of her fellowship, she stated. 

“This course covers what I consider to be some of the most important factors in conducting any community work,” stated Mitcham, “[including] the value of involving community members in every step of community work and using an interdisciplinary strategy to address problems.” 

The course explores wants assessments, crafting efficient surveys, focus group questions, and extra, utilizing examples of precise group work, stated Mitcham, who can also be director of the web MPH program. 

Mitcham goals to include college students’ pursuits within the classroom in order that they will discover subjects which might be related to them. For GCH 609, Vardhan used her analysis from her summer season fellowship and her work at Inova as the idea for her assignments. 

“One of my favorite things about [the college] is that students are supported not just in their education and research, but in exploring potential solutions to problems about which they care,” stated Mitcham. “Archana is fabulous, and I can’t wait to see the amazing positive changes that will occur to the holistic health of postnatal mothers of color as a result of Archana’s drive, passion, and excellence.” 

Although her fellowship has ended, Vardhan nonetheless does volunteer work with AMCHP and is in fixed contact along with her web site supervisor. AMCHP additionally has a program referred to as Healthy Birth Initiatives that may profit from Vardhan’s work.  

“In the end, it is the mother who is taking care of the baby, so now after giving birth they can be taken care of too. The biggest takeaway is that postnatal care for Black mothers should be culturally sensitive, inclusive, and tailored to address the unique challenges they face,” stated Vardhan.  

“By focusing on these key areas, health care providers and policymakers can work toward improving the health and well-being of Black mothers and their babies. Mothers are dealing with a huge crisis in terms of emotional [health], especially mothers of color,” she stated.