“If we start building supports during children’s earliest learning moments, we have the potential to change the trajectory of their lives,” says LaTousha Daniels, CEO for Miami Children’s Initiative (MCI). MCI is located in Liberty City, a Miami neighborhood where crime and violence are chronic, and where the childhood poverty rate is 95 percent higher…
“Sleep-related infant deaths in the counties we serve are twice as high as the rest of the state,” says Stacie LeBlanc, BSN, RN, IBCLC, lead lactation consultant at Christus Southeast Texas St. Elizabeth Hospital. “Due to these alarming statistics, we felt a sense of urgency to join a national safe sleep improvement initiative. By teaching families…
Opioid use disorder in pregnancy has increased dramatically across the country in the last decade, bringing with it increased health risks for mothers and babies. Mothers who don’t receive treatment are facing increased pregnancy complications, including increased risk for preterm births and low birth rates, and ultimately, more families are being separated, whether by needed…
When someone breastfeeds, they release oxytocin, a hormone that soothes anxieties and helps induce a unique emotional connection to their newborn baby. Oxytocin, also known as “the love hormone,” packs a powerful punch that, while supporting healthy breastfeeding, has one potentially dangerous side-effect: it can make people tired. “New mothers are sleep-deprived and understandably stressed,” says…
Mason Archer Weaver was born on Jan. 6, 2017. His nurses nicknamed him “Speedy” because it took just two pushes of labor before he joined the world. It was a beautiful Tennessee winter day with fresh snow falling, recalls his mother Brittanie. “He was six pounds and eight ounces of perfection, with a little bald…
Cases of postpartum hemorrhage are on the rise, occurring in an estimated 3 percent of deliveries in the United States, or more than 100,000 births a year. These are alarming numbers, especially given that postpartum hemorrhage is a leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths. A recent study from the CDC Foundation notes that hospitals may be able to prevent up…
In 2016 in Mississippi, more than 30 healthy babies died in their sleep from accidental suffocation or strangulation. These numbers reflected an increase from the previous year, despite the promising fact that overall infant mortality rates decreased in the state. “Understanding infant safe sleep practices isn’t always easy; that’s why we need to do more…
Too many children are losing parents and caregivers to a drug that affects millions of Americans every year. Foster care placements have risen alongside opioid use disorder and death rates, and opioid-related neonatal abstinence syndrome has skyrocketed, leaving children as the youngest casualties of a nationwide epidemic. The crisis is especially prevalent in rural and economically…
The care teams in hospital maternity units across the country all share a common aim: each want to give the mothers and babies they serve the best chance at a healthy birth. But for some hospitals, that best chance might involve relocating mothers to a facility with the equipment and staffing needed to handle high-risk…
There are a lot of frightening statistics surrounding infant deaths: more than 3,000 babies die suddenly and unexpectedly every year; black babies are dying at twice the rate of white babies; and sleep-related deaths have stopped declining. As frightening as these numbers are, they’re also numbers that can be changed. That’s why, in this article,…