Maternal and Child Health Resource Repository

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. 

Virtua Health, a comprehensive community health system, serves communities in southern New Jersey and the greater Philadelphia region. The health system sees 8,000 to 9,000 deliveries across three of its five acute care hospitals, making women’s health among its leading service lines. Virtua used the opening of Virtua Voorhees in 2011, a 400-bed hospital, to evolve care delivery for laboring patients.

Makunda Abdul-Mbacke, M.D., an obstetrician-gynecologist, shares the challenges she faces in her rural Virginia community and her hopes for the future of rural health.

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.

The stark differences in maternal health outcomes between Black and White women are widening at an escalating pace, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky, M.D., last night 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 5 and 11. The following information provides a summary of the important details for health care providers and clinicians.

In this Members in Action podcast featuring maternal and child health efforts, Aisha Syeda, program manager at the AHA is joined by leaders from Northwell Health.

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.

Please join the American Hospital Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association as pediatricians and hospital leaders discuss how doctors can work with parents to build trust in the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines for children, and offer key strategies to protect kids and keep them in school.

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.

Joining Aisha Syeda, program manager at the AHA is Dr. Nirmaljit Dhami, the medical director of the inpatient perinatal psychiatry at El Camino Health; and Dr. Alpa Shah, director of the Perinatal Mental Health Clinic at Marshfield Clinic Health System.

Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital (HDVCH), part of Spectrum Health, is a 234-bed comprehensive children’s hospital in downtown Grand Rapids, that not only serves the needs of the local community, but also is a regional referral center for Spectrum Health and western Michigan. During the pandemic, HDVCH and community partners responded quickly to the increased need for behavioral health services and found new ways to provide them.

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 webinar will highlight strategies for identifying risk factors for poor maternal mental health, and developing a mental health program to improve outcomes, reduce stigma and increase access to support networks.