Insights

Each month, we’re shining a spotlight on a NICHQ employee, asking them to share their memories, advice, and goals. Here, Project Specialist Danisha Charles, MPH shares her passion for children's health and advocating for those with inadequate resources due to systemic inequity.

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. 

Join NICHQ for an upcoming webinar “Their stories are so powerful”: Community-based approaches to infant safe sleep and breastfeeding promotion, on Aug. 23. from 2-3:30 PM EST.  The webinar will highlight findings from a recent NICHQ-led study titled “Community-Based Approaches to Infant Safe Sleep and Breastfeeding Promotion, a Qualitative Study,” published in BMC Public Health in March. 

Patient and family partnerships are an essential element of health equity. By supporting patient and family voices and encouraging space for collaboration, public health professionals can help ensure shared vision and values are at the forefront of determining solutions to improve a community’s health outcomes. 

NICHQ Analyst Rinka Murakami is committed to addressing disparities in maternal and child health, particularly racial disparities. As an Analyst in NICHQ's Department of Applied Research and Evaluation, Rinka is particularly passionate about working on various health initiatives focused on improving birth equity and respectful care. 

Patient and family partnerships are an essential element of health equity. By supporting patient and family voices and encouraging space for collaboration, public health professionals can help ensure shared vision and values are at the forefront of determining solutions to improve a community’s health outcomes.

Evidence demonstrates that fathers play a critical role in children’s health and development, beginning in the prenatal period and continuing through early childhood and adolescence. On this episode of Before Birth & Beyond, NICHQ honors Men's Health Month and Father's Day, both celebrated in June, by sitting down with two Black fatherhood experts to discuss the importance of including fathers in maternal and child health work, policy considerations to improve father engagement, and men's mental health and its impact on outcomes for children and families.

NICHQ Director of Communications and Digital Strategy Jey Weisgerber is committed to helping NICHQ achieve the mission that every child achieves their optimal health. They are particularly passionate about addressing inequities in maternal and child health and working to ensure MCH is more inclusive, not just for queer and gender-nonconforming folks who might give birth, but also for fathers and other partners who are parents or caregivers and for kids who are trans or intersex. 

The National Institute for Children's Health Quality (NICHQ) has incorporated AARs as a quality improvement tool for the past four years. Read a conversation with NICHQ Project Director Sandra Widland, MPH,  and Associate Project Director Eliza Williamson about the ways NICHQ utilizes AARs in various projects and its benefits to healthcare professionals and others interested in improving systems.

NICHQ Project Coordinator Beverly Reyes shares her deep passion for equity in healthcare, stemming from her family background and cultural experiences as a child of immigrants. 

In recognition of Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re taking some time to reflect on maternal mental health and the experiences of a new parent who is also a maternal and child health researcher. Read our conversation with NICHQ Associate Director of Research and Evaluation Meera Menon, PhD, and learn more about her experiences navigating these roles and thoughts about how public health practitioners can hold maternal mental health more compassionately for all new parents, but especially those negatively impacted by social determinants of health. 

Teams at the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality are preparing for an exciting spring 2023 conference season, where staff will give poster presentations and facilitate workshops at a variety of national maternal and child health conferences.