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Strengthen the Evidence for Maternal and Child Health Programs

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Search Results: MCHLine

Items in this list may be obtained from the sources cited. Contact information reflects the most current data about the source that has been provided to the MCH Digital Library.


Displaying records 21 through 40 (1,724 total).

Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. n.d.. Pregnancy and opioids: What families need to know about opioid misuse and treatment during pregnancy. New York, NY: Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, 20 pp.

Annotation: This guide provides information for a pregnant woman’s family about opioid misuse and treatment during pregnancy. The guide explains what an opioid use disorder is and discusses the importance of comprehensive prenatal care and treatment for pregnant women with the disorder, delivery, newborn health, breastfeeding, social supports, and what to expect in the weeks and months after delivery.

Keywords: Consumer education materials, Infant health, Narcotics, Perinatal addiction, Pregnant women, Substance abuse treatment

American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. n.d.. The Head Start dental home initiative: Partnering to provide dental homes and optimal oral health for Head Start children throughout the U.S.. Chicago, IL: American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, 2 pp.

Annotation: This report provides background on an initiative launched as a partnership between the American Academy of Pediatric Dentists and the Office of Head Start with the purpose of establishing dental homes for young children who may otherwise go without oral health care. The report explains the requirements of the contract, offers background on both organizations, and discusses what the initiative hopes to accomplish for infants and children enrolled in the Head Start program or Early Head Start program. It also details what the initiative will do to provide parents and Head Start staff with evidence-based information about how to help prevent tooth decay, and it describes how a national network of pediatric and general dentists will be organized under the initiative.

Keywords: Access to health care, Collaboration, Dental caries, Head Start, Infant health, Initiatives, Low income groups, Prevention, Tooth decay, Young children

California Department of Public Health, California WIC program. n.d.. A postpartum guide to being healthy for you and your baby. California WIC Program , 58 pp.

Annotation: This guide for new mothers addresses postpartum health and wellness during the first year after childbirth. Topics include sleep strategies for mother and baby, dental health guidance, physical activity recommendations, planning for future pregnancies, and nutrition and healthy eating with specific guidance on important nutrients like iron, calcium, folic acid, and fiber. Culturally-informed recipes such as Golden Milk and Chinese Rice Soup are included. The guide also provides practical advice on managing common postpartum challenges such as breastfeeding difficulties, sleep deprivation, low energy, and symptoms of depression that may require seeking help. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale screening tool is included. Additional resources for mental health support, nutrition education, breastfeeding assistance, domestic violence help, and substance abuse treatment are located on the final pages.

Keywords: Breastfeeding, California, Infant health, Maternal health, Mental health, Nutrition, Physical activity, Postpartum Depression, Postpartum care

Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Division of Public Health. n.d.. Becoming a Mom®. Topeka, KS: Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Division of Public Health, 2 pp.

Annotation: This infographic presents data from the Kansas Perinatal Community Collaborative on their implementation of the March of Dimes' Becoming a Mom (BaM) prenatal education curriculum. It describes the evidence-based program's three-fold approach to perinatal care, education, and support, including its cognitive and behavioral compoments. The infographic compares demographic characteristics of mothers participating in the BaM program, shares self-reported outcomes and behaviors of program participants, and highlights key infant health metrics for BaM mothers compared to statewide data.

Keywords: Educational materials, Infant health, Maternal health, Patient education, Perinatal care, Postpartum care, Prenatal care

South Dakoda Department of Health . n.d.. Postpartum Health. Pierre, SD: South Dakota Department of Health,

Annotation: This web page from the South Dakota Department of Health focuses on Postpartum Health, recognizing it as a critical part of the maternal health journey that requires compassionate and comprehensive care. Intended for new parents/moms, the site provides information and support for a healthy recovery, covering physical, emotional, and mental changes after childbirth. Major topics include learning about care after delivery, distinguishing between baby blues and postpartum depression, well-baby checkups, the benefits of breastfeeding, and family planning, including information on the South Dakota PLAN clinic. The resource also provides safety guidance for the family and infant, detailing safe sleep practices, prevention of child injuries (home safety, car seat safety, and choking), and tips for choosing quality child care.

Keywords: Infant care, Maternal health, Patient education, Postpartum care, South Dakota

Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Division of Primary Care and Health Access, Office of Oral Health. 2025. Fluoride varnish training manual for Massachusetts healthcare professionals. Boston, MA: Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Division of Primary Care and Health Access, Office of Oral Health, 11 pp.

Annotation: This manual is designed to help non-oral-health professionals implement fluoride-varnish application for infants, children, and adolescents ages 6 months to 21 years who are enrolled in Massachusetts’ Medicaid program. The manual includes instructions on how to complete the online Smiles for Life training, which is required for health professionals to apply fluoride varnish for this population. It also discusses how to begin using fluoride varnish in a practice as well as how to keep fluoride varnish notes and how to bill for fluoride varnish application. Basic information about fluoride varnish application and information to share with parents and other caregivers is included.

Keywords: Adolescents, Children, Clinical coding, Consumer education materials, Dental caries, Disease prevention, Fluorides, Infants, Manuals, Massachusetts, Medicaid, Oral health, Oral health care, Preventive health services, Reimbursement, Resources for professionals, Risk assessment, State programs, Training, Young adults

Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors. 2025. Best practice approach: Perinatal oral health (upd. ed.). Reno, NV: Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors; Washington, DC: National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center, 20 pp. (Best practice approaches for state and community oral health programs)

National Center on Health, Behavioral Health, and Wellness. 2025. A guide to the dental periodicity schedule and oral exam. Washington, DC: National Center on Health, Behavioral Health, and Wellness, 7 pp.

Annotation: This guide is designed to help Head Start staff understand what a dental periodicity schedule is. It provides background on the Head Start program performance standard that addresses an oral exam, describes elements of an oral exam, and offers information on the timing of oral exams and who can conduct them. It is available in English and Spanish.

Keywords: Head Start, Health screening, Infant health, Low income groups, Oral health, Prevention, Spanish language materials, Young children

Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors, Dental Public Health Policy Committee. 2025. Policy statement: Perinatal oral health (rev. ed.). Reno, NV: Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors; Washington, DC: National Maternal and Child Oral Health Policy Center, 7 pp.

Annotation: This updated report offers information about oral health for women during the perinatal period and discusses problems related to women's oral health and their ability to access oral health care during this period. A strategic framework for improving perinatal oral health, based on core public health activities, is presented, and a policy statement is included.

Keywords: Access to health care, Infant health, Oral health, Perinatal care, Pregnant women, Prevention, Public policy , Treatment

New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute. 2025. Looking at NJ Medicaid oral health quality performance for children through a secret shopper market survey of the MCO network directories for children ages 0 to 6. Princeton, NJ: New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, 23 pp.

Annotation: This report provides information about the quality of oral health care for infants and children from birth through age 6 enrolled in Medicaid in New Jersey. The report includes information on the importance of oral health. Data on the oral health status of infants and children living in the state, including those enrolled in Head Start, and about receipt of oral health care among these infants and children is presented. The report also describes a "secret shopper" survey used to assess quality and provides the quality measures used, methods, and results.

Keywords: School age children, Disease prevention, Access to heath care, Infant health, Low income groups, Medicaid, New Jersey, Oral health, Quality assurance, State information, Surveys:, Young children

U.S. Maternal and Child Health Bureau. 2025. Healthy Start. Rockville, MD: Health Resources and Services Administration,

Annotation: This website provides information about the Healthy Start program, administered by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), that works to improve health outcomes before, during, and after pregnancy in high-risk communities. The program focuses on enhancing mothers' health, preventing infant death, and eliminating health disparities through comprehensive, personalized care. The website offers several key resources, including a downloadable Healthy Start Fact Sheet providing program overview, links to evaluation reports showing program effectiveness, information about the Healthy Start EPIC Center for training and technical assistance, and access to the CAREWare database system for data management. Visitors can also find a program locator tool to find local Healthy Start sites, details about grant awards from 2019-2024 (including specific community-based doula initiatives), and contact information for additional questions. The site highlights program accomplishments, showing that Healthy Start participants receive early prenatal care, well-woman visits, and depression/interpersonal violence screenings at higher rates than national averages. The website also explains the structure of the Community Consortium approach and describes the Alumni Peer Navigator initiative that employs former program participants to help current families access needed services.

Keywords: Health care disparities, Health promotion, Healthy Start, Infant health services, Infant mortality, Maternal health services, Perinatal care, Prevention

Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs. 2025. Early hearing detection and intervention – Complementary programs designed to build comprehensive systems. Washington, DC: Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs, 2 pp.

Annotation: [This fact sheet describes the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) system, which ensures that deaf and hard-of-hearing infants and children up to age 3 are identified in a timely manner and receive appropriate follow-up services to optimize their development. The document explains that EHDI state grants were first authorized in the Newborn Infant Hearing Screening and Intervention Act of 1999 and were most recently reauthorized through the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Act of 2022, creating complementary programs administered by both the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It provides a comparison table showing how HRSA funding focuses on developing statewide screening and intervention programs while CDC funding advances states' capacity to track infants and optimize information systems.

Keywords: Child health, Early intervention, Infant health, Legislation, MCH Programs, Screening

Santoro M, Heaton LJ, Preston R, Sonnek A, O'Malley J, Tranby EP. 2025. Lifellong oral health: How insurance type shapes dantal care spending. Boston, MA: CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, 10 pp.

Annotation: This report examines spending on oral health care and oral-health-related medical treatment for people from birth to age 89, and evaluates differences in oral health care spending between Medicaid and commercial insurance plans to highlight how the two types of coverage differ in spending across the lifespan. It provides results in the following categories: average spending on prevention or basic oral health care, major oral health care, and oral-health-related medical care; average Medicaid and commercial spending by treatment categories; and average Medicaid and commercial spending by specific treatment types.

Keywords: Adolescent health, Adult health, Costs, Health insurance, Infant health, Medicaid, Older adults, Oral health, Prevention, Treatment

Phipps KR. 2025. Maternal and Child Health--Improving Oral Health Integration (MCH-IOH}: Environmental scan chartbook. Washington, DC: National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center, 58 pp.

Annotation: This chartbook contains data about factors that could impact the integration of oral health care into primary care for infants, and children, adolescents, and pregnant women at high risk for oral disease in seven states (Colorado, Connecticut, Montana, New York, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin) and Puerto Rico. Topics include scope of practice, Medicaid billing and reimbursement, dental hygienists, dental therapists, community health workers, and teledentistry.

Keywords: Adolescent health, Community health, Dental hygienists, Infant health, Medicaid, Oral health, Pregnant women, Primary care, Service integration, Teledentistry

South Carolina Institute of Medicine and Public Health. 2025. Improving maternal and infant health: Increasing access to care in rural South Carolina. Columbia, SC: Institute of Medicine and Public Health , 114 pp.

Annotation: This report presents recommendations from a taskforce convened to address maternal and infant health challenges in rural South Carolina. The document examines the significant barriers facing pregnant and postpartum women and their babies in rural areas of the state, including provider shortages, hospital closures, transportation challenges, and nonmedical drivers of health such as poverty and food insecurity. It reviews successful programmatic efforts including Family Solutions, Hello Family Pay for Success, and the Management of Maternal Diabetes initiative, as well as policy approaches from other southern states that have expanded practice authority for certified nurse midwives and strengthened workforce incentives. The report provides detailed recommendations organized into four categories: care delivery (including mobile maternity units and telehealth expansion), workforce development (addressing pay equity and training), training and education for providers and communities, and addressing nonmedical drivers of health through transportation and social support services. It includes extensive data on maternal mortality rates, provider distribution maps, and economic analyses of the costs associated with poor maternal health outcomes, along with definitions of key terms and comprehensive references.

Keywords: Barriers, Infant health, Maternal health, Model programs, Postpartum care, Prenatal care, Rural health, South Carolina, State initiatives

Wyoming Department of Health . 2025. Postpartum health – After baby & beyond. Cheyenne, WY: Wyoming Department of Health,

Annotation: This web page from the Wyoming Department of Health and Wyoming Medicaid provides information and resources for Wyoming Medicaid moms and new parents navigating health and benefits during the postpartum period. The resource offers guidance on timing and expectations for postpartum and newborn health checkups and details how to access an electric breast pump through the Healthy Babies, Happy Moms Program. For new families, the site provides safety information, including safe sleeping recommendations to reduce the risk of SIDS. The page also addresses maternal mental health and Substance Use Disorder (SUD), providing immediate assistance lines and links to community treatment providers. Furthermore, it highlights extensive free state programs, such as the Wyoming Hand in Hand home visitation program and the Parents as Teachers program, and lists resources for financial and coverage support, including SNAP, WIC, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and assistance with utility costs.

Keywords: State programs, Community based services, Infant care, Low income groups, Maternal health, Mental health, Newborns, Postpartum care, Wyoming

Sakala C, Burns M. 2025. transforming maternal health in Medicaid: A playbook for state Medicaid agencies and their partners based on CMS's Transforming Maternal Health (TMaH) model. Washington, DC: National Partnership for Women and Families, 79 pp.

Annotation: This report provides information that state Medicaid agencies and their partners can use to improve maternal and infant health through their Medicaid programs, with particular attention on the Transforming Maternal Health Model (TMaH). The report contains three sections that correspond to core areas of maternal and infant health improvement: best practices, policy checklists, and resources.

Keywords: Infant health, Maternal health, Medicaid programs, Public policy, Resources for professionals

National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Oral Health Information Clearinghouse. 2024. A healthy mouth for your baby. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Oral Health Information Clearinghouse, 12 pp.

Annotation: This document is intended to help parents keep their infant’s mouth healthy. It lists five steps that parents can take: Protect the infant’s teeth with fluoride, check and clean the infant’s teeth, feed the infant healthy food, don’t put the infant to bed with a bottle, and take the infant to the dentist before age 1. The text is accompanied with colorful illustrations. A conversation between two mothers in which one learns from the other about how to keep a baby’s teeth healthy is included. The document is available in English and in Spanish and a version in English geared toward Native American parents is also available.

Keywords: Alaska Natives, American Indians, Consumer education materials, Oral health: Infant health, Prevention, Spanish language materials

Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center . 2024. Prenatal-to-3 state policy roadmap . Nashville, TN: Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center ,

Annotation: This roadmap provides detailed information on policies and strategies that foster nurturing environments for infants and toddlers and reduce disparities in access and outcomes. Published annually, the roadmap is designed to help state leaders (1) Assess the wellbeing of its infants and toddlers and prioritize state policy goals; (2) Identify evidence-based policy solutions proven to impact policy goals; (3) Monitor states’ adoption and implementation of effective policies and strategies; and (4) Track the impact that policy changes have on improving the wellbeing of children and families and reducing disparities between racial and ethnic groups. A summary of each state’s progress is included.

Keywords: Child health, Data collection, Early childhood development, Family leave, Health care access, Health status disparities, Home visits, Infant health, MCH programs, Policy, Prenatal care, State initiatives, State policy

Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors, National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center. 2024. Policy statement: Integrating oral health care into primary care. Reno, NV: Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors; Washington, DC: National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center, 11 pp.

Annotation: This policy statement focuses on integrating oral health care into primary care. It provides a summary of the issue, presents the problem of pervasively poor oral health among pregnant women and children from families with low incomes, and discusses opportunities to address this problem by integrating oral health care into primary care. Examples of a national initiative and statewide programs that are working to integrate oral health care into primary care are included, and the role of state and territorial oral health programs in this effort is discussed. [Funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau]

Keywords: Adolescent health, Federal initiatives, Infant health, Low income groups, Oral health, Pregnant women, Service integration, State programs

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The MCH Digital Library is one of six special collections at Geogetown University, the nation's oldest Jesuit institution of higher education. The library is supported through foundation, univerity, state, and federal funding. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by the U.S. Government. Note: web pages whose development was supported by federal government grants are being reviewed to comply with applicable Executive Orders.