Insights

Understanding how to support agency can help health care professionals transform their conversations with families and tap new and innovative approaches. Below, Milt Kotelchuck, PhD, MPH, provides six practical opportunities, drawing on more than three decades of experience working in maternal and child health quality improvement.

Targeted efforts can help decrease the U.S.'s troubling high infant mortality rate. However, since infant mortality is considered a relatively rare occurrence, it can be difficult to measure improvement efforts and assess impact. To combat these challenges, NICHQ leveraged a QI approach novel to the field of maternal child health: the use of statistical process control (SPC) charts. In this article, we share insight on how these charts can improve maternal and child health programs by helping them analyze and respond to rare events.  

A new issue brief, co-authored by AMCHP and NICHQ, explores how New Jersey engaged mothers in its efforts to improve postpartum visit rates as a strategy to increase new mother wellness.

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. Here, find out how to empower women about their sexual and reproductive health and improve birth outcomes.

To understand health holistically, we need to consider it outside the silo of a healthcare system. We need to take into account the many other factors that impact our individual health, factors like the schools we attend and the relationships we experience. Read on to uncover three tried and tested ways to make changes in your state and help ensure that all children, regardless of circumstance, achieve equity in health outcomes.

When a 2014 report showed one child almost every three days in Virginia died related to a preventable unsafe sleep environment, leaders at the Virginia Department of Health knew it was time to take action.

New maps show state Medicaid quality metrics and performance-based incentives for women’s health services to improve birth outcomes.

The infant mortality toolkit supports teams looking to improve infant health in their communities.

Racial disparities in health and healthcare access have a profound affect on infant health, especially when it comes to preterm births.

In our special Underserved Population Series, we’ve highlighted teams that have made strides in reaching underserved populations across different strategic focus areas for addressing infant mortality.

Longer intervals between pregnancies mean better birth outcomes and healthier babies. While there is no consensus on optimal interpregnancy interval, research shows that short intervals of less than 18 months and intervals longer than 60 months are associated with poor health outcomes.

Although great strides have been made in recent years, infant mortality remains a problem in the United States. The infant mortality rate has declined – dropping 13 percent between 2005 and 2013 – while still leaving the U.S. far behind many industrialized nations.