Early childhood data—three words that can add stress to any effort to improve early childhood health outcomes. Stress from collecting, analyzing, sharing and reporting it. If we can find ways to mitigate that stress, early childhood data has unparalleled potential. After all, a functioning data system can help improve the quality of services that support…
“If we start building supports during children’s earliest learning moments, we have the potential to change the trajectory of their lives,” says LaTousha Daniels, CEO for Miami Children’s Initiative (MCI). MCI is located in Liberty City, a Miami neighborhood where crime and violence are chronic, and where the childhood poverty rate is 95 percent higher…
“Sleep-related infant deaths in the counties we serve are twice as high as the rest of the state,” says Stacie LeBlanc, BSN, RN, IBCLC, lead lactation consultant at Christus Southeast Texas St. Elizabeth Hospital. “Due to these alarming statistics, we felt a sense of urgency to join a national safe sleep improvement initiative. By teaching families…
DeAndre was born into a neighborhood where drug use was common, and poverty and gang violence were pervasive. He is one of too many children born into circumstances that illustrate why families need better supports and better systems. DeAndre’s grandfather, David Armstrong, is a family partner on the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Collaborative Improvement and Innovation…
Opioid use disorder in pregnancy has increased dramatically across the country in the last decade, bringing with it increased health risks for mothers and babies. Mothers who don’t receive treatment are facing increased pregnancy complications, including increased risk for preterm births and low birth rates, and ultimately, more families are being separated, whether by needed…
Improving children’s health outcomes often relies on supporting and inspiring a behavioral change. This change might be in the population we’re seeking to support (helping pregnant mothers quit smoking) or in the systems we’re seeking to improve (getting buy-in from care teams on an improvement initiative). This change is most effective, and most sustainable, when…
When someone breastfeeds, they release oxytocin, a hormone that soothes anxieties and helps induce a unique emotional connection to their newborn baby. Oxytocin, also known as “the love hormone,” packs a powerful punch that, while supporting healthy breastfeeding, has one potentially dangerous side-effect: it can make people tired. “New mothers are sleep-deprived and understandably stressed,” says…
Mason Archer Weaver was born on Jan. 6, 2017. His nurses nicknamed him “Speedy” because it took just two pushes of labor before he joined the world. It was a beautiful Tennessee winter day with fresh snow falling, recalls his mother Brittanie. “He was six pounds and eight ounces of perfection, with a little bald…
Cases of postpartum hemorrhage are on the rise, occurring in an estimated 3 percent of deliveries in the United States, or more than 100,000 births a year. These are alarming numbers, especially given that postpartum hemorrhage is a leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths. A recent study from the CDC Foundation notes that hospitals may be able to prevent up…
“There’s a gap in our early childhood screening system,” says Dawn Alexander, M. Ed., the Preschool Expansion Coordinator for Delaware’s Colonial School District, one of the place-based communities in the NICHQ-led Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Improvement and Innovation Network (ECCS CoIIN). “My colleagues and I keep seeing 3-year-old children entering pre-school with developmental delays, and…