Doula Support Improves Maternal and Child Health Outcomes, Patient and Family Engagement

In honor of World Doula Week, celebrated annually March 22-28, The National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ) held a conversation with LaToshia Rouse, CD/PCD(DONA), owner of Birth Sisters Doula Services. Rouse currently serves as the Patient and Family Engagement Co-Chair of the National Network for Perinatal Quality Collaboratives Executive Committee and joined NICHQ’s Board…

Children and Their Families Have a Right to Gender-Affirming Healthcare

Last fall, my husband and I received an email from our son’s Scout Leader about a new scout that would be joining our Troop. This scout lived in a neighboring town and did not feel comfortable joining their local troop due to their gender identity. Shay (name has been changed) was assigned female at birth…

Supporting Children’s Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Currently, children without underlying chronic conditions do not appear to be at high risk for COVID-19 and the illness seems to be milder in children than adults. But while most children may be unlikely to have adverse health effects from the illness, COVID-19’s overall impact on children’s health outcomes will likely be far reaching.  “When…

A Mother-Centered Approach to Treating Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome

With rising opioid addiction rates, increasingly high numbers of babies are being born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). Babies with NAS may suffer from multiple withdrawal symptoms including tremors, sleeping problems, irritability, fever, diarrhea, difficulty eating and gaining weight, and seizures. Researchers at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital have published findings (Hospital Pediatrics, January, 2018) that…

The Opioid Epidemic and Maternal Health: Three Opportunities for Change

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…

Social-Emotional Health is Often Invisible, But It Still Needs Support 

In Bountiful, Utah, on Dec. 1, 2016, a young boy fired a gun into a classroom full of middle school science students. No one was physically injured, but there were other kinds of injuries. Aliza, the daughter of NICHQ Project Director Colleen Murphy, MSMOB, was in that classroom. And the shooter was one of Aliza’s…

Scan of Early Childhood Developmental Screening Strategies Reveal Varied Approach

    A new issue brief from NICHQ and the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP) provides insight into the Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant developmental screening activities across the country, one aspect of enhancing systems that support early childhood development.     Entitled Early Childhood Developmental Screening and Title…