For the past 18 years, Mary Bullock, LCSW, MBA, has provided counseling and support to pregnant women and young mothers in the Indiana Women’s Prison (IWP). A social worker for Indianapolis Healthy Start, Bullock says that her relationships with these women have been a highlight of her 40-year career. “If I won the lottery, I…
Across the country, health and social service providers have had to find new ways to support children and families in the face of COVID-19. Home visiting services, pediatric well-child visits, prenatal care, and mental health appointments have largely had to transition from in-person appointments to visits virtually—either via phone or video. At the same time, COVID-19…
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted daily life across the country, with schools and childcare closed, routine medical care delayed, public transportation limited, and millions of jobs lost. These disruptions have affected communities where families already face significant threats to their health and well-being. In response, Baltimore Healthy Start, Inc., a federally funded program focused on…
For years, experts have called for a comprehensive system that links young children and families to needed health and social services at the community, state, and federal level. The coronavirus pandemic has revealed that the need for that system is more urgent than ever. Children’s health and development is affected by a long list of…
Right from the beginning, fathers play a big role in their children’s health and development. Studies show that father involvement during the perinatal period and the first year of life leads to children who are more ready for school, have an advanced vocabulary and enhanced social skills, and are better able to regulate their emotions….
In the past decade, overall infant mortality rates have gone down. Yet, nationwide sleep-related infant death rates have stagnated, and the rate of accidental suffocation or strangulation in bed has actually increased. Changing these statistics requires more than teaching families about safe sleep guidelines; it requires concerted efforts to empower families as champions for their…
Just three days after their daughter, Lyra, was born, Amber Cole and her husband realized that something was wrong. Lyra had lost an abnormal amount of weight and couldn’t gain it back; and frighteningly, whenever they lifted her legs to change her diaper she would scream in pain. “Every time we changed her, her scream…
Social media’s enduring popularity makes it an optimal resource for awareness building and education. In the past decade, the number of Americans using social media has nearly doubled, and today approximately seven in 10 Americans spend time on a social platform. Social media is prevalent across different groups and all income levels and has continued to…
Latoshia Rouse is the mother of triplets who were born prematurely, at 26 weeks gestation. She is also someone who knows too well that health care systems can both support and fail families. From struggling to find prenatal care to experiencing a dangerous postpartum hemorrhage, Rouse’s story reveals extensive holes in the health care system—holes…
“There is no population met with more scorn or derision than a mother with opioid use disorder [OUD] who has a young child,” says Eileen Costello, MD, FAAP, Chief of Ambulatory Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center. Opioid-related deaths among women of reproductive age have rapidly increased in recent years, as have OUD among pregnant women…