In 2016 in Mississippi, more than 30 healthy babies died in their sleep from accidental suffocation or strangulation. These numbers reflected an increase from the previous year, despite the promising fact that overall infant mortality rates decreased in the state. “Understanding infant safe sleep practices isn’t always easy; that’s why we need to do more…
Too many children are losing parents and caregivers to a drug that affects millions of Americans every year. Foster care placements have risen alongside opioid use disorder and death rates, and opioid-related neonatal abstinence syndrome has skyrocketed, leaving children as the youngest casualties of a nationwide epidemic. The crisis is especially prevalent in rural and economically…
Quality improvement efforts bring together a host of passionate and talented stakeholders, all seeking sustainable solutions for complex multi-layered problems. Because of their complexity, these initiatives require a leader who can seamlessly manage and motivate their team’s efforts—someone who can inspire others and envision the future while not forgetting about the tasks that need to get done along the way….
The care teams in hospital maternity units across the country all share a common aim: each want to give the mothers and babies they serve the best chance at a healthy birth. But for some hospitals, that best chance might involve relocating mothers to a facility with the equipment and staffing needed to handle high-risk…
Quick Info on Vermilion Parish Parent Academies What: A series of educational sessions covering key early childhood topics Where: Schools, health centers, libraries When: After work hours, twice a month Who: Parents of children ages 0-4 How: Through a community-based, collaborative approach Parents are their child’s earliest teachers, setting the stage for a healthy future…
There are a lot of frightening statistics surrounding infant deaths: more than 3,000 babies die suddenly and unexpectedly every year; black babies are dying at twice the rate of white babies; and sleep-related deaths have stopped declining. As frightening as these numbers are, they’re also numbers that can be changed. That’s why, in this article,…
Before joining NICHQ as Chief Health Officer in May 2018, Elizabeth Coté, MD, MPA, spent over a decade working to improve health in vulnerable communities across the world. From rebuilding the health infrastructure of war-torn Iraq to managing the opioid epidemic in a northern Maine community, Coté’s efforts revolved around one central goal. “Every day,…
Public health initiatives have traditionally been able to claim success by showing positive health impacts through program evaluations. However, as public health funding grows scarcer there is a growing expectation for evidence of economic impacts from funders. States like Oklahoma and Tennessee, among others, have seen the need for and benefit of generating double impact…
Simply put, fewer unplanned pregnancies means more healthy moms and babies. It’s a fact that has ignited efforts to address unplanned pregnancies as a strategy to improve infant mortality rates.
How do I find time to breastfeed my baby at school? What will my friends think if they see me breastfeeding? Shouldn’t my mom just watch my baby? She knows more than me anyway. We can only begin to imagine how difficult breastfeeding must seem to mothers who are in the midst of their adolescence….