Initiatives
Improved Hearing Screening and Intervention Services (IHSIS)
A series of collaborative improvement projects to increase the rate of documented follow-up and intervention services for infants with hearing loss.
Status: Complete
The multiple collaborative projects ran from 2010 to 2013.
- Who: Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) offices representing 28 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, in collaboration with parent partners, audiologists and other healthcare professionals and advocates.
- Funder: This project was funded by the Health Resources and Service Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau.
- Our Role: Facilitated Breakthrough Series learning collaboratives to apply quality improvement methodology to improve the systems of care for children with hearing loss.
What IHSIS Project Participants Say
Working with NICHQ has been a very rewarding experience … A partnership with families has been a hallmark of what the Maternal and Child Health Bureau has done for years, but NICHQ really demonstrated how important those partnerships are.
Being involved with NICHQ has been a career-changing and life-altering experience in many ways. Quality improvement methodology is not additive to my work, it influences how I do my daily work.
At the beginning we thought that it'd be another project or another thing to do in our list of things we're supposed to do. But actually what I've learned is this is a better way to do things—a faster, better and effective way. You have to have a goal and objectives. When you work through the process we've been learning at NICHQ, everything is very efficient.
Prior to the working with NICHQ, we had had some broad areas of focus for our plan for the year, but really had no strategy or mechanism for testing whether a change that we implemented was an improvement. And we’d always implement statewide before knowing if the change was beneficial. I’ve seen other participants in NICHQ projects make a similar shift and now think about how things are possible instead of impossible.
Related Content
"Their stories are so powerful": Community-based approaches to infant safe sleep and breastfeeding promotion |
August 23, 2023 from 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM (EDT)
While sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) and breastfeeding are public health issues across population groups, significant disparities exist across race, ethnicity, and geography. To center the lived experiences of communities, many MCH programs are shifting to community-driven work to promote safe sleep and breastfeeding, including the National Action Partnership to Promote Safe Sleep Improvement and Innovation Network (NAPPSS-IIN).
This webinar discussed how the NAPPSS-IIN programmatic and evaluation pursuits shifted to center community voices within participatory quality improvement (QI). Community partners share their experiences leading and implementing QI activities. Implications for MCH projects and community-based research were discussed.
Moderator: Meera Menon, Ph.D, Associate Director of Research and Evaluation, NICHQ
Speakers:
- Angeline Bell, BS, RN, CCE, CBS, Certified Childbirth Educator and Lactation Specialist, Program Manager, Babies Born Healthy, Montgomery County, MD
- Crystal Trent Paultre, MSN, RN, CBS, Community Health Nurse, Babies Born Healthy, Montgomery County, MD
- Lynnette Byfield, Community Health Worker, Babies Born Healthy, Montgomery County, MD
- Stacy Scott, Ph.D., MPA, VP of Health Equity and Innovation, NICHQ
- Rebecca Huber, MPP, Senior Analyst, NICHQ
Before Birth & Beyond
Before Birth & Beyond: Improving Care in MCH is a new equity-focused NICHQ podcast dedicated to discussing pressing issues in maternal and child health through the lens of shared learning, action, and impact.
Before Birth & Beyond: Improving Care in MCH
E5: Exploring NAPPSS-IIN Project Insights and Future Visions: A Conversation about Safe Sleep and Breastfeeding Initiatives
August 21, 2023 SEASON 1 EPISODE 5
S1, E5 Show Notes
EPISODE 5 SUMMARY: In this episode of Before Birth & Beyond, In honor of Breastfeeding Awareness Month, our main story this episode features NICHQ Summer 2023 Communications interns who sit down with NICHQ staff to discuss some of NICHQ's breastfeeding and safe sleep initiatives while highlighting the impact of combining infant safe sleep (ISS) and breastfeeding promotion on the community level. Additionally, we'll spotlight national and NICHQ campaigns and resources to support breastfeeding/chestfeeding equity, and more!
National Breastfeeding Month
SEGMENT SUMMARY: This episode, we’re taking some time to reflect on National Breastfeeding Month, observed in August. Significant racial, ethnic, and geographic disparities exist among sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUID) and breastfeeding practices in the U.S.
RELATED LINKS:
- NICHQ National Breastfeeding Month Resources
- Natonal U.S. Breastfeeding Committee National Breastfeeding Month 2023 Campaign
- The AAP Policy: Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk
- Inclusive Communication Surrounding Childbirth, Lactation, and Infant Feeding
Main Story: Exploring NAPPSS-IIN Project Insights and Future Visions: A Conversation about Safe Sleep and Breastfeeding Initiatives
SEGMENT SUMMARY: For our main story in this episode we are joined by Summer 2023 NICHQ Communications & Digital Strategy interns Amalia Hirschhorn-Martinez and Katie McCormick. They speak with members of the NICHQ team about our upcoming webinar focused on infant safe sleep and breastfeeding messaging and NICHQ’s continued work to ensure health professionals and the communities they serve are supported with the necessary tools and resources to create safe sleeping environments and improve breastfeeding and chestfeeding rates. Stay tuned!
RELATED LINKS:
- Interview Transcript
- 8/23 Webinar Registration
- Project Page: National Action Partnership to Promote Safe Sleep Improvement and Innovation Network (NAPPSS-IIN)
- NICHQ Blog: Continuing Conversations Around Breastfeeding and Safe Sleep Promotion
Why I Work in MCH
This month, Danisha Chalres, MPH, a project manager on the Supporting Healthy Start Performance Project shares her passion for addressing inequities in maternal and child health and collaborating with community and professional partners to make improvements.
Learn more about the rest of NICHQ’s team at https://www.nichq.org/about/team.
NICHQ Breastfeeding & Infant Safe Sleep Webinar
Continue conversations about breastfeeding and infant safe sleep promotion with a focus on community feedback that highlights racial/ethnic disparities and associated socioeconomic, cultural, and psychosocial influences.
Their stories are so powerful": Community-based approaches to infant safe sleep and breastfeeding promotion
In the U.S., significant racial/ethnic and geographic disparities exist among sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUID) and breastfeeding practices. Combining infant safe sleep (ISS) and breastfeeding promotion on the community level presents opportunities to address these racial/ethnic disparities and associated socioeconomic, cultural, and psychosocial influences.
In Spring 2021, the National Action Partnership to Promote Safe Sleep Improvement and Innovation Network (NAPPSS-IIN) hosted a series of Listening Sessions to address two research questions: (1) What are the areas that community-level organizations need support to serve their population’s needs around safe sleep and breastfeeding; (2) What tools or resources could assist them in improving their work promoting safe sleep and breastfeeding?
This webinar shareed thematic findings and implications for safe sleep and breastfeeding policies and education.
Featured Speakers:
- Angeline Bell, BS, RN, CCE, CBS, Certified Childbirth Educator and Lactation Specialist, Program Manager, Babies Born Healthy, Montgomery County, MD
- Crystal Trent Paultre, MSN, RN, CBS, Community Health Nurse, Babies Born Healthy, Montgomery County, MD
- Lynnette Byfield, Community Health Worker, Babies Born Healthy, Montgomery County, MD
- Stacy Scott, Ph.D., MPA, VP of Health Equity and Innovation, NICHQ
- Meera Menon, Ph.D., Associate Director of Rese
ABOUT NICHQ'S WEBINAR SPEAKERS
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Lynnette Byfield is one of the newest members of the Maryland County, MD., HHS Babies Born Healthy (BBH) Program team, serving as a community health worker for the program since February 2023. Prior to joining the team, she was a participant of the program, while pregnant with her youngest son. Lynnette loves empowering women to advocate for themselves and their babies and supporting them in their journey to motherhood. |
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Angeline Bell, BS, RN, CCE, CBS is a dedicated registered nurse with more than 20 years of experience on the frontline of Public Health. As an RN, she works to promote health and prevent illness and disability for residents, families, and visitors in Montgomery County, MD. Angeline is a certified childbirth educator and lactation specialist and teaches childbirth classes at Holy Cross Hospital. Angeline has served the county in many capacities over the years and is the current Program Manager for the Montgomery County, MD, HHS Babies Born Healthy (BBH) Program. Here, Angeline works tirelessly with a team of committed professionals to ensure healthy pregnancy and childbirth outcomes for Black and brown families in the county. |
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Crystal Trent Paultre, MSN, RN, CBS is a community health nurse who is passionate about perinatal health and addressing maternal health inequities. She has been with the Montgomery County, MD, HHS Babies Born Healthy (BBH) Program since 2019 and previously worked as an inpatient OB nurse in Washington, DC. She is a proud mother of three and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Nursing at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. |
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Stacy Scott, Ph.D., MPA is a 30-year public health advocate and infant safe sleep expert with work ranging from the government agency level to ground zero, spearheading numerous community outreach programs nationwide to end health disparities and reduce the risk of sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUID). She currently serves as the Vice President, Health Equity Innovation at NICHQ and leads NICHQ’s anti-racism and social justice work. Stacy previously worked with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and founded the Global Infant Safe Sleep (GISS) Center in 2016, an organization with a mission to support vulnerable and marginalized global communities to reduce SUID. |
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Rebecca Huber, MPP is a policy researcher with experience in both qualitative and quantitative research and evaluation methods. She received her Master of Public Policy and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the Heller School. Rebecca currently serves as a Senior Analyst at NICHQ and previously worked a Research Associate for the Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, working on quantitative measurement indicator projects relating to family and medical leave and childcare. Rebecca is interested in systems-level two-generation approaches to social determinants of health, with a particular focus on racial/ethnic equity and community-based research methods. |
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[Moderator] Meera Menon, Ph.D. is a seasoned social science researcher with extensive experience in the evaluation of perinatal and early childhood programs, including home visiting and community-based initiatives. She currently serves as Associate Director of Research and Evaluation at the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ) where she leads the evaluation of several large systems-change programs focused on addressing equity and improving perinatal and early childhood health outcomes. She received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and her master’s and Doctorate degrees from Tufts University, where she focused specifically on early childhood development and program evaluation. |
Read Community-Based Approaches to Infant Safe Sleep and Breastfeeding Promotion: A Qualitative Study
This NICHQ-led study details opportunities and challenges to improve community-level promotion of infant safe sleep (ISS) and breastfeeding in communities vulnerable to infant safe sleep and breastfeeding disparities.
Through analysis of data collected for the National Action Partnership to Promote Safe Sleep Improvement and Innovation Network (NAPPSS-IIN), a multi-year project running from 2017- 2022, NICHQ researchers identified four themes to inform infant safe sleep and breastfeeding promotion: education and dissemination, relationship building and social support, working with clients’ personal circumstances and considerations, and tools and systems.
NICHQ authors include:
- Meera Menon, PhD, Associate Director of Research and Evaluation (Lead Author)
- Rebecca Huber, MPP, Senior Analyst
- Dana D. West, PhD, Associate Project Director of Equity
- Stacy Scott, PhD, MPA, VP, Health Equity Innovation (Executive Project Director)
- Rebecca B. Russell, MSPH, VP, Applied Research and Evaluation
- Scott D. Berns, MD, MPH, FAAP, President and CEO (Principal Investigator)
Connecting Breastfeeding Safety & Infant Safe Sleep
At NICHQ, we are committed to making breastfeeding and infant safe sleep the national norm. Breastfeeding or chestfeeding brings a variety of health benefits for babies. Mothers and birthing people with young babies need support to continue breastfeeding while ensuring infants sleep safely.
Explore our resources to promote and encourage healthy sleep habits:
- Dispell common myths and facts about safe infant sleep and breastfeeding
- Educate childcare providers and caregivers with resources about safe sleep practices
- How sleep savvy are you? Take our safe sleep quiz to find out. Now on Instagram!
- Implement these tactics and examples to support safe sleep conversations
