What Happens in New Orleans Should NOT Stay in New Orleans

Last week myself and several other Every Woman Southeast leadership team members had the opportunity to attend an Infant Mortality Summit in New Orleans. The meeting was sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in collaboration with the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP), the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and the March of Dimes. The meeting was specifically for states in the Department of Health and Human Services Regions IV and VI - 16 states that have historically had among the worst rates of infant mortality in the nation. The objectives for the meeting were ambitious and included to understand strategies to improve birth outcomes; create synergy among State Health Officials, MCH Directors, Medicaid and State partners; identify clear strategies and outcomes for each state (completed by state teams); investigate a common strategy for the states in the region; and create a unified message that builds on best practices. From the North Carolina perspective, I thought that the meeting went very well. I feel very hopeful that this may well be the significant push many of us have been waiting for to finally shine the light on infant mortality and move forward with some new energy and innovation. I'll post the proceedings on our website as soon as they become available.

And on a side note, I must say that I had a chance to taste my first Beignets at Cafe du Monde in the French Quarter. All I can say is "YUM". We Southerners may have our challenges but we also have some great food!

Mark Your Calendars for our Next Webinar

We are really excited about our upcoming webinar on February 9, 2012 from 12-1:30 est. This webinar will focus on the Life Course Theory. This theory is a conceptual framework that helps explain health and disease patterns - particularly health disparities - across populations and over time. It points to social, economic and environmental factors as underlying causes of persistent inequalities in health. This theory is grounded in social determinants and social equity models and is also a community or "place based" approach. While the concept is innovative and for most public health professionals somewhat intuitive, the application in practice is a lot more complex.

In other words, while many of us may be interested in changing the way we approach our work in maternal and child health, there are not many existing models and programs to refer to as best practice for how to actually make it happen! This means that we need to be the change agents to begin to build these new models. But first, it is helpful to make sure we understand the concept and have guidance as to how some programs have made this happen.

Both of our speakers are national experts on the life course model. Our first speaker is from Florida and will provide us with an overview of this model and some resources and examples for application. Our second speaker is not from the South but is leading a very successful and growing MOVEMENT in New York City to reframe his entire perinatal partnership to be in line with the life course theory.

We hope you will register and then join us in a few weeks. To register click here https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/402200873

Happy New Year!

Day three of the New Year and I've managed to keep many of my resolutions...take a vitamin (check), bring a healthy lunch to work (check), remember to breathe (check - I'm serious - don't you sometimes get so busy you forget to breathe?), and start writing a proposal for funding to make 2012 the year Every Women Southeast becomes a force for change (check)! I love the first week of January and I love making resolutions. There is something beautiful about a fresh start and setting intentions for the year. Even if we don't achieve them, putting them forward and giving them a name is important. This is a dynamic time - for health care and for social change. I can't imagine a better year for us to move forward together and make things happen!

National Preconception Health Planning Meeting

It is hard to believe that the holidays are upon us! Where has the year gone? In true New Year's Resolution style, a group of about 40 professionals from across the country convened in New Orleans for a one day meeting to set plans for preconception health for 2012. The focus of the meeting was to bring together leadership from the five different national workgroups - consumers, public health, policy/advocacy, health care professionals, and research/surveillance - to review the progress of the national campaign to date, think about issues that cut across the workgroups and to plan for the upcoming year. It was very encouraging to look at all the work that has taken place over the years - most of it completed through the work of volunteers with very limited fiscal resources. We will be posting a slide presentation that summarizes the campaign to date on our website along with meeting proceedings as soon as they are released. I think that everyone left inspired and focused - a great way to end the year. Are you interested in serving on a national workgroup? If so, please let us know!

Food for Thought from North Carolina

On November 15, 2012, the Forsyth County Infant Mortality Reduction Coalition in partnership with the March of Dimes, Healthy Start Baby Love Plus Network and Forsyth Medical Center hosted a conference called Taking the Life Course Perspective to Promote Preconception Health and Health Care: Towards the Promise for Equity in Birth Outcomes. Speakers included Merry-K Moos who presented on the Life Course Perspective and Vijaya Hogan who presented on the Impact of Social Disadvantage on Preconception Health. Both speakers provided important insights on these two major schools of thought in preconception health. Dr Hogan spoke about the necessity of recognizing the intersectionality of race, gender, history and class in our work - particularly as these impact African American women. We have many challenges ahead in addressing health inequities for African American women who have five risk areas: historic, acccumulated disadvantage, current social disadvantage, structural embodiments of inequity and epigenetic risks (changes in a woman's biology and that of her women due to impact of other risks).

In the afternoon Judy Ruffin spoke about North Carolina's successful Peer-to-Peer Preconception Health Educator program. Two energetic and dedicated college students from Winston Salem State University shared their experiences with the program. I left convinced that our best allies in reaching young women are young women themselves! Alvina Long Valentin provided an excellent overview of North Carolina's preconception activities and strategic plan as well as our achievements from the past few years. And I had the chance to end the conference by sharing information about Regional and National Preconception Health activities. I included information about the National Preconception Workgroups as well as work and resources from other states. As always I had a chance to showcase Every Woman Southeast and remain so encouraged at the enthusiasm people in the field, doing the work, have for our Coalition.

Sound interesting? The great people in Forsyth County have agreed to make pdfs of the speaker slides available to us. Just click here to access their presentations. I was reminded me that we have made strong progress over the past 7 years in moving preconception health forward in creative and comprehensive ways.

With my favorite holiday just a few days away, I have to say that I'm thankful that I have the chance to do this work in this time and place with amazing colleagues from across the Southeast. Thank you!

Postpartum Visit Webinar is Almost Here

We are looking forward to our next Every Woman Southeast webinar which will focus on the postpartum visit - an important opportunity for interconception care. It seems that this is another topic of great interest in the Southeast - we have over 370 people registered! While we like to feature home grown programs, we're reaching over to the West Coast to learn from Dr. Jeanne Conry, MD, PhD who has provided leadership to work in California where our innovative colleagues have reconsidered and improved the postpartum visit.

Why is this visit important? For many women, this may be one of their last encounters with a health care professional - for their own care - for a long time. While Health Care Reform has the potential to provide ongoing access to health coverage for all women, our current system of care leaves low income mothers without coverage once they are about 6 weeks postpartum. In our region over 12% of new mothers find themselves pregnant again within 6 months of giving birth. The risk of preterm birth increases with short birth intervals.

Interested? Please join us for the webinar on October 13th from 12-1:30 EST. You can register on our website. We will post the slides in case you miss it. You can also start a conversation on this topic - add a comment to our blog!

Taking on the Life Course Model

For the past few weeks the Every Woman Southeast Coalition's leadership team has been working to finalize its goals, logic model and action plan. As we've thought deeply about what needs to happen in the Southeast to truly improve the health of mothers and babies, we agree that change will only come when we take on the hard issues. These include the social determinants of health, policy issues that impact our communities, leadership development, and racism. That's enough to make your head swim!

But doing the business the way we always have doesn't cut it - especially in these difficult times. The Life Course Model is a new paradigm in the field of maternal and child health that has the potential to change our practice. This model offers a new way of looking at health, not as disconnected stages (infancy, latency, adolescence, childbearing years, menopause and beyond) unrelated to each other, but as an integrated continuum. This perspective suggests that a complex interplay of biological, behavioral, psychological, social and environmental factors contribute to health outcomes across the course of a person's life (thank you to Drs Pies, Kotelchuck, Lu and Ms Parthasarathy for the quote).

We want to figure out how to put this model into practice - here at home. Want to learn more? Check out the MCH Lifecourse Toolkit website from CityMatCH. They have excellent resources! We'll be posting our plan just as soon as its done - we'll be sure to let you know!