Maternal and Child Health

Find up-to-date information about enacted maternal and child health (MCH) legislation. Legislative topics include newborn screening, women's health, childhood obesity and nutrition, maternal and infant mortality, maternal and child mental health and the impacts of substance use on the MCH population. You can search legislation by state, topic, keyword, year, status or primary sponsor.

Searching ((maternity OR maternal OR mother*) AND health)

The database is designed to further strengthen global and national efforts to eliminate unsafe abortion by facilitating comparative and country-specific analyses of abortion laws and policies, placing them in the context of information and recommendations from WHO technical and policy guidance on safe abortion

Documentary and social-issue films including content from Bullfrog Films, Icarus Films (including The Fanlight Collection and dGenerate Films), National Film Board of Canada, KimStim, MediaStorm, Kartemquin Films, Terra Nova Films, ScorpionTV, and First Run Features.

NLM has digitally preserved nearly 250 rare films addressing these topics, with a particular emphasis on birth control, family planning, and social determinants of human health and overpopulation. Many titles have soundtracks in multiple languages, as they were designed as a direct-to-the-people educational tool, and were distributed worldwide chiefly through non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Across New York State and the U.S., Black women are significantly more likely to experience a pregnancy-related death, and maternal mortality rates continue to rise. In 2021, the maternal mortality rate for Black women was 69.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, 2.6 times the rate for white women (CDC National Center for Health Statistics). Live via Zoom webinar, the NYU McSilver Institute partnered with the Greater New York Chapter of the Links, Incorporated, and One Brooklyn Health to host a virtual community forum in recognition of Minority Mental Health Month.

Despite all the modern advances in medical care, pregnancy and birthing can put women of color at high risk. Advocates are breaking down systemic racism within maternal health care and proposing new initiatives towards doula services, establishing birth centers, and support to decrease infant mortality rates. (PBS)

Drexel University School of Public Health Preconception Peer Educators work to disseminate essential preconception health messages with a commitment to lowering the high infant mortality rates among racial and ethnic minorities.

The Maternal and Child Health Program (MCH Program) at the Dornsife School of Public Health is a multidisciplinary group of academics, clinicians and policy makers who strive to improve the health of women and children through education and research.

The mission of this organization is to explore a broad range of maternal and child health topics, including birth outcomes, family planning, the role of fathers, child and adolescent health, environmental conditions that impact the health of mothers and children through a collective effort involving guest speakers, article discussions, and community activities in order to disseminate maternal and infant/child health information to our peers and the community around us.

Mother-Baby Connections is one of only a few intensive outpatient clinics of its kind in the United States, and the only one in the mid-Atlantic region. Unlike many other postpartum mental health clinics, the Drexel program emphasizes the mother’s relationships with her baby and partner, and encourages moms to bring their infants to therapy. Babysitting is provided for infants when moms need to participate in other activities.

One of six original National Centers of Excellence in Women's Health awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health. WHEP is committed to advocating for women's health issues in medicine. Our efforts are directed toward long- and short-term change, with the hope that the future physicians we train will view women's health as a fundamental element of medical care that is more than reproductive health.

A report that describes and discusses maternal deaths, 2010-2012, that were reviewed by the Philadelphia Maternal Mortality Review team.

The mission of Maternity Care Coalition is to improve the health and well-being of pregnant women and parenting families, and enhance school readiness for children 0-3.

New Voices promotes the complete health and well-being of Black women and girls in the Greater Pittsburgh Region. Our definition includes eight dimensions of health: physical, emotional, spiritual, cultural, political, economic, environmental and social.

The Pennsylvania Breastfeeding Awareness and Support Program was started in 2004 to increase the number of new mothers who choose breastfeeding as their long-term infant feeding method.

The Family Planning Program provides support to the statewide family planning clinics operated by Pennsylvania’s four regional Family Health Councils.

The Maternal and Child Health Services Title V Block Grant program acts as a safety-net provider for health care services and essential public health services for women, mothers, infants, children up to age 22, and children with special health care needs and their families. Every five years, the Bureau of Family Health is required by the Title V Block Grant to do a Needs and Capacity Assessment: a full study of the health of the Maternal and Child Health population in Pennsylvania, and the ability of the Bureau of Family Health to meet the needs of this population.

Newborn screening in Pennsylvania is completed to ensure every newborn is tested for metabolic, endocrine, hemoglobin, heart disease and hearing loss.

The Pennsylvania Perinatal Quality Collaborative (PA PQC) was launched in April 2019, with a focus on reducing maternal mortality and improving care for pregnant and postpartum women and newborns affected by opioids.

CenteringPregnancy® is group prenatal care designed for women sharing similar experiences of pregnancy and childbirth. Women receive prenatal care in 10 group sessions with eight to 10 other women at about the same stage of pregnancy.

A report from a group of many different local organizations working together to lower the rate of infant mortality (November 2018).

https://www.phila.gov/services/mental-physical-health/get-health-care-and-support/family-and-childrens-health-care/get-prenatal-care/

The Maternal & Child Health Section of APHA was organized in 1921 with the mission of developing innovative and creative approaches to addressing the health needs of mothers, children, adolescents and families.

Black Mamas Matter Alliance is a Black women-led cross-sectoral alliance. We center Black mamas to advocate, drive research, build power, and shift culture for Black maternal health, rights, and justice.

CityMatCH is a national membership organization of city and county health departments' maternal and child health (MCH) programs and leaders representing urban communities in the United States. The mission of CityMatCH is to strengthen public health leaders and organizations to promote equity and improve the health of urban women, families, and communities.

NICHD was founded in 1962 to investigate human development throughout the entire life process, with a focus on understanding disabilities and important events that occur during pregnancy. NICHD’s mission is to ensure that every person is born healthy and wanted, that women suffer no harmful effects from reproductive processes, and that all children have the chance to achieve their full potential for healthy and productive lives.

MCHB-funded programs, research, outreach and other efforts seek to ensure the health and well-being of women and children across their lives: when a woman is of childbearing age, when a woman is pregnant, when a child is born, if the child has special health care needs, and as a child grows.

NIMHD’s mission is to lead scientific research to improve minority health and reduce health disparities.

The National Perinatal Task Force is a grassroots movement to start and grow Perinatal Safe Spots (PSS) in every ‘Materno-toxic Area’ in the USA, in order to eliminate racial and class disparities in birth outcomes, and to create equity and power in maternal child health care.

The Preconception Peer Educators (PPE) Program was developed to raise awareness among college students about the disproportionately high infant mortality rates among racial and ethnic minorities. The PPE Program is based on the concept of peer education as a teaching tool to educate fellow college students about healthy behaviors and the social determinants of health that impact health disparities.

The UNFPA, UNICEF, UN-Women, PAHO and NBEC Maternal Health Analysis of Women and Girls of African Descent in the Americas brings together for the first time, comparative data across the Americas on the situation of Afrodescendant women’s maternal health. It finds that Afrodescendant women and girls are disadvantaged before, during and after pregnancy. Afrodescendant women and girls’ maternal deaths are particularly alarming.

The analysis provides action oriented recommendations to reduce maternal mortality and ensure the highest attainable standard of maternal health for girls and women of African descent in the Americas in the short and medium terms.