Pulse September 2008 

From the CEO

Going for Gold
This summer’s Olympics were an awesome spectacle. World records were broken, medals were doled out, and dreams came true for some of the best athletes on the planet. The nation’s medal count was impressive – 36 gold, 38 silver, and 36 bronze medals were bestowed upon U.S. athletes – the most medals awarded the United States since the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. New facilities were built in record time and new technologies were introduced to many events including the ultra-slippery swimming gear which may have made the difference in swimmers reaching some of the fastest speeds in history. Television coverage of the events was ubiquitous and included a daily tally of how many medals had been awarded to the United States broadcasted on most major news networks. For two solid weeks it seemed like nothing else in the world mattered but how many medals our fellow Americans would bring home at the end of the Games and how many records they would break. And boy did they make us proud.

Given our success at the Beijing Olympics, I couldn’t help but ponder what would happen if the United States competed in a maternal and child health Olympics. Would our medal count compare?

[read Mike Fraser's full article]

AMCHP Awarded State Public Health Coordinating Center on Autism

AMCHP is pleased to announce that it was awarded a cooperative agreement with the Maternal and Child Health Bureau to be the State Public Health Coordinating Center for Autism. Through this funding, AMCHP will create a comprehensive technical assistance and resource center that will support both state Combating Autism Act Initiative grantees, as well as all state Title V programs as they develop and implement systems to improve the health and well-being of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other developmental disabilities.  We look forward to partnering with you as we move forward on this exciting opportunity! If you have any questions about the State Public Health Coordinating Center for Autism or would like further information, please contact Lauren Raskin Ramos at lramos@amchp.org.

Get Involved

New Content from the MCH Journal

The July 2008 issue of the Maternal and Child Health Journal (MCH Journal) contains several articles related to reducing infant mortality and improving birth outcomes.
[read more]

Member Panel Spotlight

AMCHP staff interviewed two AMCHP members - Loretta (Deliana) Fuddy (HI) and Suzanna Dooley (OK) -   to gain insight on promising strategies and approaches to reduce infant mortality. Both Title V Directors described some emerging and innovative strategies to reduce infant mortality in their state.
[read more]

Movers and Shakers

An interview with James Collins, MD, MPH, Chairman of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality.
[read more]

Success Stories

From 2004-2006, AMCHP partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation to form the State Infant Mortality Collaborative (SIMC). This three-year project supported five multidisciplinary state teams, as they investigated the infant mortality problem in their jurisdictions and made plans to address it as they deemed feasible and appropriate.
[read more]

Features
The Fetal and Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) Process - A Tool States Can Use –FIMR programs are currently being implemented in approximately 40 states. Of those 40 states, 25 have specifically designated a state FIMR coordinator, who provides training and technical assistance to local programs. What makes this local program so important at the state level? This article describes the FIMR process and discuss the many benefits of FIMR at the state and local level.
[read more]

AMCHP Partners with CityMatCH and NHSA to Eliminate Disparities in Infant Mortality –While it is well known that racial inequities in infant mortality exist, the question of how to effectively address these inequalities remains. The Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP), CityMatCH, and the National Healthy Start Association (NHSA) acknowledge that no one organization can accomplish measurable success alone.
[read more]

A Healthy Baby Begins with You –The Office of Minority Health (OMH), of the Department of Health and Human Services, in 2007, launched A Healthy Baby Begins with You - a national print and radio campaign to raise awareness about infant mortality with an emphasis on the African American community. The campaign slogan is an empowerment message, encouraging expectant parents to utilize community resources and become educated about the things they can do to give their babies a healthy start.
[read more]

Healthy Start & Title V work together to reduce Infant Mortality in Baltimore – Baltimore City Healthy Start, Inc (BCHSI), a 501(c) 3 non-profit corporation, was established by the Baltimore City Health Department in 1991 to administer the planning and implementation of the only federally funded Healthy Start program in the State of Maryland.
[read more]

View from Washington
Of all the measures of our nation’s health status, it is striking how well the national infant mortality rate can serve as an overall proxy measure of how our society is doing to meet the needs of moms, children and families. The loss of a child in infancy is a tragedy no family or community should have to endure, and we should never forget the suffering behind these statistics. 

So how are we doing? Despite great progress, it is clear we have much room for improvement.
[read more]

Data and Trends
Analysis of Mortality Rates and Low Birth Weight Among Infants.
[read more]

Resource Bank

CityMatCH
CityMatCH has tools and resources for implementing the Perinatal Periods of Risk (PPOR) approach for mobilizing communities to reduce feto-infant mortality in U.S. cities. PPOR is a joint initiative of CityMatCH and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), March of Dimes (MOD), and Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).

[read more]

Download a PDF version of the September edition of Pulse here.