The Health Resources and Services Administration awarded states and territories an additional $81 million in emergency funding from the American Rescue Plan Act for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, which provides voluntary home visits to improve maternal and child health for families in high-risk communities.
Maternal and Child Health News
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America’s hospitals and health systems are committed to providing the best possible care for all women, including pregnant women, new mothers and their babies, and to amplifying the voices of women of color who are disproportionately affected by maternal morbidity and mortality.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, M.D., released an Advisory on Protecting Youth Mental Health, which calls for a “a whole-of-society effort to address longstanding challenges, strengthen the resilience of young people, support their families and communities, and mitigate the pandemic’s mental health impacts.”
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services intends to propose adding a “birthing-friendly” hospital designation on its Care Compare website to drive improvements in perinatal health outcomes and maternal health equity, the Department of Health and Human Services announced.
The White House hosted a summit to mark the first federal Maternal Health Day of Action. The summit highlighted actions the federal government is taking to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity.
The House passed the Maternal Vaccination Act (H.R. 951), an AHA-supported provision from the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act that would direct the Health and Human Services Secretary to carry out a national campaign emphasizing the importance of maternal vaccinations.
Learn how Virtua Health empowered OB-GYN physicians and nurses to integrate protocols that lowered C-section, hypertension and hemorrhage rates for patients in labor in this AHA Members in Action case study and podcast.
The AHA has joined the Children’s Hospital Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry as a partner in Sound the Alarm for Kids, an initiative urging Congress to enact legislation and increase funding to better support mental health for children and teens.
A replay is now available of the Nov. 8 AHA/American Academy of Pediatrics/Children’s Hospital Association webinar on vaccinating pediatric patients against COVID-19. The webinar offers insights, resources and lessons learned to assist pediatricians and hospitals in working with parents and communities to build trust in the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine for children.
Over a two-year period, health care organizations and their community partners in four cities — Atlanta, New Orleans, Detroit and Washington, D.C. — tested and scaled locally driven initiatives to improve Black maternal health equity.
In this Members in Action podcast, Northwell Health’s Viktor Klein, M.D., system director of quality and patient safety for OB/GYN, and Adriann Combs, clinical director of OB/GYN services, share how launching the Maternal Outcomes and Morbidity Collaborative (MOMS) has increased awareness of maternal health complexities, and reduced disparities in maternal care.
The National Institutes of Health will support a four-year study on the potential long-term effects of COVID-19 on women infected with SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, M.D., accepted the recommendation of her agency’s independent Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to administer Pfizer’s pediatric COVID-19 vaccine to children between the ages of five and 11.
As recommended by its advisory committee on preventing lead exposure, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reduced the blood lead reference value for children from 5 micrograms per deciliter to 3.5 micrograms per deciliter to reflect declining blood lead levels in U.S. children aged 1-5.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced the HHS Racial Equity in Postpartum Care Challenge, a competition dedicated to upgrading postpartum care for Black and Native women enrolled in the Medicaid or CHIP programs.
Depression during pregnancy and postpartum depression are among the most common complications of pregnancy, even higher than hypertension and diabetes, said Alpa Shah, M.D., director of the Perinatal Mental Health Clinic at Marshfield Clinic Health System.
El Camino Health in Mountain View, Calif., will host a free virtual symposium Oct. 7 on maternal mental health.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged clinicians to educate pregnant patients about the benefits and safety of COVID-19 vaccination; and encourage and offer vaccination to patients who are pregnant, recently pregnant or might become pregnant to increase vaccination rates in this population.
The Health Resources and Services Administration awarded $342 million to expand home visiting services to pregnant women and parents with young children in U.S. states and territories.
The House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees approved their legislative recommendations for the Build Back Better Act, which will be considered under budget reconciliation.