NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana is one of the most dangerous places for a woman to give birth.
Even more shocking is that data shows nearly 80 percent of pregnancy-related deaths are potentially preventable.
One of the biggest hurdles is access.
OBGYN Dr. Rebekah Gee is fighting to change the future for women’s healthcare in our state, by bringing healthcare directly to the homes of our states most vulnerable with Nest Health.
Cianna is a sweet and bubbly 1 and a half-year-old at a routine check-up. She was getting a check-up recently with Dr. Katie Brown in her mother's home.
“Ciana is a really good patient, so she just lays out on the mat no problem,” Dr. Brown said.
There’s no bed because this check-up isn’t being done in a clinic.
Cianna is in the comfort of her own home- something that helps Cianna relax while getting vaccines and her blood drawn. But for Casme, Cianna’s mother, it saved her life.
“In 2022 I went in to have my daughter and had some complications. I had pre-eclampsia. I ended up with three surgeries, five blood transfusions. I was in the hospital for nine days,” Casme said.
Casme always dreamed of being a mother. It's a time in a woman’s life that’s supposed to be filled with joy, and it was, until Casme went into the hospital to have Cianna. She ended up laboring for 31 hours before having a C-section.
“Every few minutes I had different people coming in the room. Literally I probably saw 50 to 60 people in a matter of nine days,” Casme Barnes Carter. During her third surgery doctors removed two liters of blood off her stomach.
Among 11 developed countries, the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate according to the CDC. That rate has doubled in the past 20 years. The state of Louisiana has the second highest state where women die either before during or a short time after giving birth.
“From my pain to my suffering and feeling like I wasn’t being heard and sometimes I wasn’t educated on what was going on I had no clue you know and so it left me in a kind of very depressed state,” Casme Barnes Carter said.
Casme was too weak to even hold her newborn. When she got home, she was using a walker to get around. Despite her condition she was denied in-home healthcare.
“They did say it was because of insurance but because of everything I went through they said we are going to try and see what we can do. So, they were able to they allowed me to have like a bedside commode and a walker,” Casme said.
After nearly dying, Casme was sent home, with a bed pan.
“It was one of the scariest times of my life to be honest with you because I was like I don’t want to be a failure of a mom already and I'm only a week or a few weeks or two in and I can’t even hold my baby. It was really um heartbreaking because I had been waiting so long to have a baby,” Casme said.
The numbers are grim. But this story is not just about the numbers. It’s about the people changing the narrative. A major contributing factor to the high rate of maternal mortality is the fact that half of all expecting mothers are not receiving postpartum care. For Casme, the post-partum care did come.
An OBGYN and mother of five Dr. Rebekah Gee says she understands the need families have when it comes to quality healthcare that is also accessible.
“Nest was started out of me frankly being frustrated with the lack of progress and I think it takes a woman sometimes to solve the problem. so here we are,” Dr. Rebekah Gee said.
As the former Louisiana Secretary of health, Dr. Gee led the expansion of Medicaid, still she says Louisiana is falling short when it comes to healthcare for women. So ,she set out to change that.
“We will meet any family with children who meets our criteria. Which means shows they can’t really access primary care. They haven’t been to their pediatrician or their postpartum visit," Dr. Gee said.
From their non-traditional care model to the pink and green paint throughout the office- Nest is redefining what medical care looks like. Even their clinic has been reduced to a black bag on wheels small enough to carry on a flight.
With Nest the entire family receives care in one visit, whether that be physical or mental. Providers see just five families a day. Making it easier to form close relationships.
“We had a mom tell us. We asked her you know why didn’t you go to your postpartum visit and she said well there was a sign on the door that said no children allowed and she said how am I going to get my baby. Who is going to take care of my baby while I get myself taken care of,”Dr. Gee said.
Nest is a team of doctors, nurse practitioners, therapists, and family advocates. They provide care to parents under the age of 65 and their children up to 18 years-old in the same household.
“We want to change healthcare in this country, and we want to make Nest possible in all fifty states and we want to scale all throughout Louisiana. We want to change the narrative around maternal and child health. Making sure every child, every mom, every parent gets the kind of healthcare they need,” Dr. Gee said.
Dr. Gee launched Nest in March of last year- since then they have grown to 35 employees serving over 2,000 patients and have raised over twenty million in funding. Currently they are taking care of Medicaid families.
“We are the first company to be able to do vaccines from home at scale for children. We had to figure out how to get vaccines in a bag in the hundred-degree heat of the summer and make sure that they are the right temperature,” Dr. Gee said.
For families like Casme and Ciana, it’s the kind of care that can and has changed their outcome.
“I am grateful to be alive and I am grateful that she was good and she’s still a perfect baby,” Casme said.
Dr. Gee says they have plans to open a second Nest location in Baton Rouge. From there they hope to expand nationwide. Currently three states, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Arizona have all reached out hoping to bring Nest to their own healthcare systems.
Nest link: https://www.nesthealth.com/