In January 2023, a pregnant woman walked through the door of the Memphis, Tennessee, branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and joined the MyBaby4Me classes.
She quickly bonded with Elder Lynn Archibald and Sister Joell Archibald, a senior missionary couple serving there from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Archibalds led classes, shared resources and provided support as part of the initiative.
Later that month, the expectant mother called Sister Archibald to tell her about unusual lower back pain she was experiencing. When she was 23 weeks pregnant, people were telling her that it was normal for her back to hurt.
But Sister Archibald quickly realized that the woman might be in premature labor. She helped her get to the hospital, where doctors were able to intervene and stop the labor.
A few months later, in May, the woman gave birth to a healthy, full-term baby boy.
“That was really the first of many miracles that we have seen with the MyBaby4Me initiative,” said Dr. Michael V. Beheshti, a practicing physician who serves as the humanitarian and service outreach coordinator in the Church’s North America Southeast Area and has served as an Area Seventy.
The MyBaby4Me program is an initiative of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in collaboration with A Chance To Learn, a national nonprofit organization, that addresses infant and maternal mortality rates that are significantly elevated in a specific geographic area.
The initiative’s primary objective is to lower the mortality rate; secondary objectives include improving the lives of women and children and strengthening families to overcome generational poverty.
The program currently operates in Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee, and is working to begin operations in Little Rock, Arkansas; Charlotte, North Carolina; and New Orleans, Louisiana, soon.
More senior missionary couples are needed to serve in these cities and as additional sites are secured.
“In communities with high infant mortality, sometimes these women are literally all alone, with no support system,” Beheshti said. “When our missionaries come in and can fill that gap, the women feel loved, they feel secure, and perhaps for the first time in their lives, they have hope.”
Prophetic beginnings and inspired research
In 2018 and 2021, Church President Russell M. Nelson and the NAACP announced major education and humanitarian initiatives. The Church pledged $2 million a year for three years to help fund joint projects with the NAACP.
Following this prophetic direction, leaders in the Church’s North America Southeast Area met with Vickie Terry, the executive director of the Memphis Branch of the NAACP.
Elder Matthew S. Holland, General Authority Seventy and then in the area presidency, asked, “Vickie, what keeps you up at night?”
She recalled, “I told the visitors that it bothers me that today our headquarters resides in a ZIP code with one of the highest infant mortality rates in the country.”
Beheshti began reviewing medical literature, and he found a peer-reviewed report from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center describing the work of Dr. Patricia Gabbe and Dr. Steven Gabbe, who created the Moms2B program in Columbus, Ohio. The program demonstrated a dramatic reduction in infant mortality.
The Gabbes and Moms2B were willing and eager to have their program replicated, and thus began the MyBaby4Me initiative.
Through the work of senior missionary couples and volunteers, the Church works with reputable and trusted nonprofit, faith-based or community organizations in the target ZIP codes. The senior missionaries tend to have training and experience in health care that enable them to use an established curriculum to coach and mentor mainly expecting mothers about pregnancy, and infant and early childhood care.
The senior missionary couples and volunteers are not practicing medicine, but the twice-weekly meetings for mothers — with children and significant others welcome as well — focus on education, bridging support gaps and building emotional resilience much like family members would.
Educational topics include fetal development, pregnancy complications, nutrition, breastfeeding, child developmental milestones, childhood safety and how to find and utilize other resources.
Volunteers and missionaries in the program try to bridge support gaps such as food security, housing, transportation, medical care, training and employment.
And building emotional resilience is done through helping young mothers belong to a community, believe in themselves, be aware of risks and become more confident.
“Many of these women have not been mothered in the way that we think of mothering,” Beheshti said. “So much of what we do in this initiative is what mothers do for their daughters.”
Working with trusted organizations
Elder Weatherford T. Clayton, an emeritus General Authority Seventy, explained that the Church and the MyBaby4Me initiative work with local organizations such as the NAACP in Memphis, Catholic Charities in Nashville, and other nonprofit organizations in the other cities coming on board.
“A Chance To Learn, our national banner organization, [is] known throughout the nation among women of color,” he said, adding that national leaders such as LaToyia Dennis and the Rev. Que English have been instrumental as well.
Others involved come from the local stakes. Some are young service missionaries. Some are senior service missionaries. JustServe volunteers can help as well. JustServe is a website and app where volunteers can find service opportunities and organizations list their needs.
Elder Clayton read Doctrine and Covenants 84:88: “And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.”
“This is happening with the volunteers serving with the MyBaby4Me initiative,” he said. “These missionaries are doing what Christ would do.”
Beheshti agreed. “They are reaching this marginalized community. They are feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and visiting the homeless and caring for the homeless and doing everything that Christ would have them do.”
Couples who feel this is something they can do as missionaries should go to seniormissionary.ChurchofJesusChrist.org/srsite and search for these specific opportunities using keywords such as “MyBaby4Me initiative,” “infant mortality,” “maternal and infant care specialist,” etc.
Anyone with questions about serving a senior mission can call 1-833-767-6477 from the U.S. and Canada, or 801-240-0897 in Utah, or email seniormission@churchofjesuschrist.org.
