Welcome to Pickles & Ice Cream Georgia!

Pickles & Ice Cream Georgia (P&I) is the project of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Georgia (HMHBGA), a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to improving maternal and infant health outcomes across Georgia through education, access to resources, and advocacy. Georgia has some of the worst maternal and infant health outcomes in the U.S.  79 out of Georgia’s 159 counties don’t have even access to obstetric care!

In 2019, HMHBGA released a report on the evaluation of current prenatal education and availability in the State of Georgia. HMHBGA found that barriers like cost, transportation, health literacy, and scheduling made it difficult for all women to receive prenatal education. In fact,  only 10 – 18% of Georgia women receive in-person prenatal education outside of their prenatal appointments. For moms who do make it to a prenatal education class, there are still major gaps. Topics like health insurance, and STI prevention often fall through the cracks. And even though around half of all of births in Georgia are Medicaid births, fewer than 12% of classes covered Medicaid-related topics.

Our state has a dire need for accessible, mom-friendly, evidence-based maternal and infant health information and resources.  The P&I team talked to moms, childbirth educators, and providers across the state to figure out how we could help fill that need. On this site, you can find answers to questions about pregnancy and birth that you might have been too afraid to ask before. We also have toolkits and referral guides available for providers and educators who need Georgia-specific maternal health resources.

Our hope is that Pickles & Ice Cream Georgia will be able to give you all the information you crave, from pre-pregnancy to postpartum – a voice you can trust and a resource you can return to again and again.

Wishing you a happy and healthy pregnancy,
The Pickles & Ice Cream Georgia Team