Celebrate NICHQ’s 25th Anniversary! Click here to learn more about our work in MCH improvement
A multi-year initiative to improve infant safe sleep and breastfeeding is launching sector-specific Communities of Practice in 2021 to address policies, improve skills, and learn from other advocates’ experiences. A virtual kickoff meeting on Jan. 28 will highlight the work of NAPPSS-INN to date, provide an opportunity to hear from constituents, and help identify…
Persistent and unacceptable disparities in infant mortality and perinatal outcomes affect the health of families in every state in the nation. For the past 30 years, the federal Healthy Start program has provided integral maternal and child health services in communities disproportionately impacted by negative birth outcomes. Now, NICHQ is working with all 101 Healthy…
Infant mortality rates for America’s Black babies are more than twice the rate of white babies Black babies are more than three times as likely to die from complications related to low birthweight as compared to white babies in the U.S. U.S. maternal mortality rates for Black women and birthing people are three to four…
As we dive in to 2020, we’re sharing an update on policies and public programs that impact children’s health outcomes. We’ve included, important legislation to watch in the coming months, and a summary of vital public programs and funding included in FY2020 appropriations. By knowing what’s happened and what’s coming down the pike, children’s health…
Improving infant safe sleep and breastfeeding requires a national commitment from individuals across systems and sectors: public health, hospitals, daycare and early education, home visiting, and advocacy organizations, to name just a few. By bringing together cross-sector partners focused on the common goal of supporting safe sleep and breastfeeding, initiatives can develop comprehensive strategies—strategies that…
“We know that for a woman to be successful at breastfeeding, it takes a village; we also know that Black women in our country are profoundly likely not to have that village in their ordinary lives,” says Khadija Garrison Adams, co-founder of Black Lactation Circle (BLaC) of Central Ohio, a community empowering black pregnant and…
Black families are twice as likely as white families to have their baby die in the first year of life. In Ohio and Wisconsin, they are three times as likely. These statistics are more than numbers; they represent real families who suffer unimaginable loss—loss that stems from the persistent effects of systemic racism on the…
In 2010, the U.S. made breastfeeding a national health improvement priority by identifying eight key breastfeeding objectives in the Healthy People 2020 goals, a ten-year agenda for promoting national health. And while we’ve made significant improvements as a nation (surpassing five of the eight breastfeeding objectives), there is still considerable progress needed to help more…
“Maternal and child health programs and professionals have become increasingly more cognizant of how fathers, specifically, affect their children’s health and development,” says NICHQ President and CEO Scott D. Berns, MD, MPH, FAAP. “Moving this conversation forward, and highlighting strategies that support father engagement and involvement, is a critical opportunity to improve children’s health outcomes…
Over the past decade, hospitals across the country have increasingly moved away from the traditional use of nurseries for healthy newborn infants, choosing instead for babies to “room-in” with mothers so that they are kept together throughout their hospitalization. Among many health benefits to both mom and baby, rooming-in supports mother-child bonding, encourages skin-to-skin contact—which…