The Bixby Center works to improve health and wellbeing and ensure that pregnant and birthing people have the equitable, supportive care they deserve.

Innovative models to increase access to equitable care

• The Bixby Center is based at ZSFG, the hospital of the city and county of SF where we provide patient-centered pregnancy and birth.
• The San Francisco Pregnancy Family Village works to improve care for Black pregnant people in San Francisco by removing barriers to care and providing an affirming, welcoming experience.
• EMBRACE, founded by Andrea Jackson, MD, provides prenatal care to Black mothers and pregnant people with an intentional angle of racial consciousness, offering a model of care where social and economic factors that affect their health can be identified and addressed.
• Team Lily provides person-centered, trauma-informed wrap-around services to pregnant and postpartum people experiencing significant barriers to clinic-based care, such as homelessness, substance use disorders, incarceration, intimate partner violence, and/or mental illness.
• HIVE helps people living with HIV meet their family-building goals with preconception, prenatal and postpartum care.
• Researchers collaborated with Global Strategies to design Noviguide, a decision-support application to manage care for small, sick infants that now has more than 100,000 users across 41 health facilities in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

Global research to improve health outcomes

• The Preterm Birth Initiative East Africa (PTBi-EA) tested maternal health quality improvements in Kenya and Uganda, resulting in a 34% reduction in stillbirth and neonatal mortality among low-birthweight and preterm infants.
• Dilys Walker, MD, developed an innovative provider training program for emergency obstetric and newborn care (PRONTO), based on highly realistic simulation and team training. The program began in Mexico, and now has programs in over 10 countries globally.
• In partnership with Kenyatta University, Dilys Walker, MD, and colleagues are evaluating the introduction of point-of-care ultrasound across 8 counties in Kenya. 
• The MILK Lab, led by Ifeyinwa Asiodu, PhD, works to improve maternal health outcomes for Black birthing people by conducting innovative human milk feeding and lactation research and engaging in policy and advocacy using a Black Feminist approach.
• Patience Afulani, PhD, is testing interventions including the Caring for Providers to Improve Patient Experience project to mitigate provider bias and improve access to person-centered maternity care.
• Alison El Ayadi, ScD, researches holistic approaches to help women recover after fistula repair surgery in Uganda.  
• Gretchen Sisson, PhD, leads research on adoption that centers the voices of mothers who relinquish their infants and raises important questions about ethics in the US adoption industry.
• The COVID-19’s Impacts on Reproduction in the US (CIRUS) Study explored the impact of COVID-19 and inequities in access to maternal and reproductive health care access during the pandemic.
• The COVID-19 Vaccination in Pregnancy and Lactation Study showed that COVID vaccines protect pregnant people and their babies, with no serious adverse effects.
• ACTIONS research showed how racism both hinders and motivates aspiring midwives of color.

Advocating for better policies and clinical practices

• Jennifer James, PhD, interviewed people about their experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and gynecological care while incarcerated and California, and worked with advocates to ensure survivors of forced and coerced sterilization are compensated by the state.
• Sarah Roberts, DrPH, leads research showing that most policies do not change substance use during pregnancy. Instead, these policies lead to increases in low birthweight and preterm birth, decreases in prenatal care, and increases in infant maltreatment and adverse infant or maternal health outcomes.
• Nicholas Rubashkin, MD, conducted research and advocated removing race as a factor in determining whether someone can give birth vaginally, a practice laced in racism that compromises patient autonomy.