Resilience & Recovery after the Maui Wildfires: Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawai'i

This video, produced by Direct Relief and Oliver Riley-Smith Cinematography, spotlights Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawai’i and the vital role it played during the Maui Wildfire of 2023. The coalition's efforts build on its 30 years of dedicated work to improve maternal, child, and family health across the state, ensuring safe pregnancies, reducing cesarean birth rates, decreasing postpartum mood and anxiety disorders, and increasing breastfeeding rates, particularly among high-risk pregnant and birthing individuals, with a particular focus on Native Hawaiians, Indigenous peoples, and COFA migrants.

In the fire's aftermath, Direct Relief provided Healthy Mothers, Health Babies of Hawai’i $550,000 in emergency operating funds to support its critical work.

Direct Relief's support for the coalition dates back years, including a grant in 2022 of $675,000 through its Fund for Health Equity to expand maternal and child health care and mobile medical services to more patients.

From the immediate medical care provided by mobile clinics to the long-term support for displaced families, the coalition's work highlights the indispensable role of midwives and nurses in disaster recovery and every day.

“When you take care of mothers and pregnant and parenting people, you really take care of a whole community,” said Sunny Chen, executive director of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawai’i. “The mothers will call you to where you need to be.”

Learn more about Direct Relief's work at https://www.directrelief.org