Maternal and Child Health

• The Puerto Rico Department of Health is working with WIC clinics to provide pregnant women with
  • Zika prevention counseling and education
  • Vector control services, such as spraying insecticide and installing screens in their homes
  • Zika prevention kits that include insect repellent, bed nets, condoms, and larvicides
• Florida’s health and education departments have partnered to protect students from Zika by
  • Providing guidance and resources for public schools and state universities
  • Requiring schools to have procedures in place to quickly deal with suspected cases
  • Giving out insect repellent
  • Linking schools with local health departments so that clinic staff can be trained in preventing and identifying Zika
• The Texas Department of State Health Services has a dedicated Zika website that outlines its Preparedness and Response Plan and has information for residents, pregnant women, and healthcare professionals.

Partnerships between public health and health care can be powerful.

• The Salina-Saline County Health Department in Kansas is integrating public health and primary care to improve birth outcomes [PDF 349KB].
• Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, has taken an innovative approach to integrating public health and health care: using a shared space [PDF 333KB] to provide seamless care and save money.
• Montana’s health department partnered with a community hospital to provide a diabetes prevention program [PDF 343KB] onsite and via video conferencing, helping participants lose weight while also reducing the state’s health costs.

• The Florida Folic Acid Coalition’s Folic Acid Every Day website educates women about making healthy food choices to protect unborn babies from neural tube defects. National and state campaigns have saved the state more than $20 million [PDF 3.02MB] since 1999.
• Michigan’s Birth Defects Program makes available preconception educational materials in Arabic and English [PDF 860KB] for more than 80,000 Arabic women statewide.
• To improve birth outcomes among low income women, Illinois reimburses healthcare providers who conduct preconception risk assessments [PDF 39KB] with women of childbearing age.
  

Social media use is helping state and local health departments extend their reach:

• In a study of US state health departments, 60% reported using at least one social media application—87% had an account belonging to Twitter, 56% Facebook, and 43% YouTube.
• In a study involving all US local health departments, 24% had a Facebook account, 8% had a Twitter account, and 7% had both.
• The Shelby County (Tennessee) Health Department is using social media to lower infant mortality rates in Memphis—its free B4BabyLife app [PDF-96KB] provides families with information and resources before, during, and after pregnancy.

• Gaston County, North Carolina, has eliminated the county’s disparity in the teen pregnancy rate between African-American and white teens.
  • In 2012, for the first year on record, the county’s teen pregnancy rate among 15- to 19-year-old black females was 40.4 per 1,000, compared with 41.1 among white teens.
• This milestone came two years after Gaston County and CDC launched the Gaston Youth Connected initiative, which offers programs to more than 1,300 young people to help them avoid unplanned pregnancy.

South Carolina Medicaid is helping providers and recipients of health care by improving service options to access long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), such as IUDs and implants. This is likely to reduce the number of repeat teen and unintended births.

• Providers are now able to receive Medicaid reimbursement for inserting an IUD or contraceptive implant in the hospital after a woman has given birth or prior to discharge.
• More information can be found in the South Carolina Medicaid Bulletin, “Long Acting Birth Control Device Provided in a Hospital Setting.”

• Memphis, Tennessee—The Shelby County health department’s efforts to save babies helped reduce the county’s high infant mortality rate by more than one third during 2003-2011.
• The American Cancer Society’s Cancer Facts & Figures for 2013 provides a concise summary of frequently used cancer statistics and information about major risk factors.
• Take the No Tanning pledge! The Melanoma Foundation of New England’s Your Skin Is IN program raises awareness among teens and young adults about the dangers of tanning outdoors and in tanning beds.
• A hepatitis C outbreak in New Hampshire, believed to have been started by a hospital technician, resulted in the New Hampshire Public Health Laboratory in Concord testing more than 4,000 blood samples in 5 months [PDF - 34KB].

• New Jersey is the first state to mandate critical congenital heart defects screening for newborns.
• Florida Department of Health partnered with March of Dimes to develop local level profiles that identify prevention opportunities for congenital heart and other defects.
• The Illinois Birth Defect Registry identifies 200 Illinois babies who have been diagnosed with congenital heart defects each year. These babies receive follow-up services from their community health agencies.

• The monthly rate of pre-39 week deliveries without appropriate medical indication decreased from 25% to less than 5% in Ohio hospitals participating in the Ohio Perinatal Quality Collaborative intervention program.
• Elective deliveries before 39 weeks decreased by 44% in North Carolina hospitals that were part of the 39 Weeks Collaborative.
• As of October 1, Texas Medicaid is denying claims for any induction or cesarean delivery before 39 weeks if not medically necessary and properly documented.

* New ASTHO president Dr. David Lakey's challenge is focused on reducing infant mortality.

• The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recently released contraceptive guidelines based on the US Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use.
• Alabama's Title X-supported centers provided contraceptive care to 107,800 women statewide in 2008 ― 79% of whom had incomes at or below federal poverty level.
• NYC's Bronx Teen Connection is partnering with 39 community-based organizations, schools, and clinics to reach over 11,000 youth with evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs and over 2,100 youth with enhanced clinical services.

• Only about 5% of U.S. babies are born in Baby-Friendly hospitals, which support an optimal level of care for infant feeding.
• Texas hospitals and birthing centers that are designated Baby-Friendly or a Texas Ten-Step facility have significantly higher rates of exclusively breastfed babies at 48 hours of life.
• Arizona's Baby Steps to Breastfeeding Success program, partially funded through CPPW, has assisted 21 hospitals and trained more than 2,400 nurses to support breastfeeding practices.