Black Mamas Matter: Advancing the Human Right to Safe and Respectful Maternal Health Care

This toolkit provides a foundation, framework and resources for advancing maternal health in the U.S. as a human rights issue. It provides a research overview of maternal morbidity and mortality, focusing on trends, health disparities and inequities. Based on the deliberations of a cross-sectoral convening of stakeholders it offers a state policy framework for upholding the right to safe and respectful maternal health care, which offers recommendations in six key areas: improving access to reproductive health care, improving quality of maternal health care, ensuring acceptability of maternal health care for women most at risk, ensuring widespread availability of maternal health services, ensuring non-discrimination in access to care and social determinants of health, and fostering accountability to human rights standards for maternal health care.

Case Management/Care Coordination Home Visiting Insurance Coverage Life Course Model Patient-centered Medical Home Prenatal Care and Education Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning

Ask the Expert: Improving the health of Women, Children and Men: A Primer on Preventive Services Covered Under the Affordable Care Act

Healthy Start programs are an invaluable resource for women, children and men to increase their understanding of the preventive services covered under the Affordable Care Act. For example, did you know that comprehensive breastfeeding support and counseling from trained providers, and access to breastfeeding supplies, for pregnant and nursing women is a covered benefit under Marketplace health plans at no charge to the client? This webinar will provide an overview of the preventive services that are covered for women, children and men. Given the substantial amount of content to cover the webinar has been divided up into three parts. The first webinar will be live. The two subsequent webinars will be recorded and available for listening shortly following the live webinar.

Objectives:

1. Identify the preventative health services for women (Part I), children (Part II), and men (Part III) available with no co-pay and deductible.
2. Describe access points for the service (Parts I – III)
3. Identify models of payments related to these services and how it might affect access and payment for the services (Part III)
4. Define barriers created by some states/insurers to reduce access to some services (Part III).

Webinar Materials:

Home Visiting Life Course Model Nutrition Parenting Education Prenatal Care and Education Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning Socio-emotional Development for Children STDs including HIV Tobacco Cessation

Ask the Expert: Parenting Children from Birth to Age 2

This webinar will focus on helping Healthy Start team members:

  • Support participants in making healthy parenting choices
  • Assist parents in creating safe environments for their young children
  • Reinforce and clarify the advice and recommendations of babies’ health care providers
  • Identify and help parents recognize warning signs that a baby or young child may be at risk.

Objectives:

  1. Describe recommendations for care of a child from birth to age 2.
  2. Discuss the importance of recommended well baby checks and describe tests and procedures that are performed during these visits.
  3. Identify warning signs that a baby or toddler may be at risk for medical or developmental problems.

Webinar Materials:

Breastfeeding Depression Father/Partner Involvement Immunization Insurance Coverage Intimate Partner Violence Nutrition Parenting Education Patient-centered Medical Home Risk Assessment Safe Sleep Socio-emotional Development for Children Tobacco Cessation

Ask the Expert: Health Insurance Enrollment and Healthy Start

Open enrollment through the Health Insurance Marketplace is fast approaching (November 1, 2015 – January 31, 2016). In light of that date and in support of the Healthy Start benchmark to “Increase proportion of HS participants with health insurance to 90%,” this webinar will provide Healthy Start staff with a reminder of the value of enrollment for Healthy Start staff, ways local Healthy Start programs can connect with local resources, and key messages that home visitors and case managers can consider when discussing health insurance with Healthy Start participants.

Webinar Materials:

Insurance Coverage

Healthy Start Regional Meeting (KS, IA, MO, NE, OK)

Meeting Materials:

Case Management/Care Coordination Communication Community and Organizational Partnerships EBP Implementation Strategic Planning

National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership

Medical‐legal partnership (MLP) is an approach to health that integrates the work of healthcare, public health, and civil legal aid to more effectively identify, treat, and prevent health‐harming legal needs for patients, clinics, and populations. MLP addresses legal needs in the areas of income supports and insurance; housing and utilities; employment and education; legal status; and personal and family stability. MLP:

  • Trains healthcare, public health, and legal teams to work collaboratively and identify needs upstream;
  • Treats individual patients’ health‐harming social and legal needs with legal care ranging from triage and consultations to legal representation;
  • Transforms clinic practice and institutional policies to better respond to patients’ health‐harming social and legal needs; and
  • Prevents health‐harming legal needs broadly by detecting patterns and improving policies and regulations that have an impact on population health. 

Case Management/Care Coordination Insurance Coverage Other Risk Assessment

Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs

AMCHP is a national resource, partner, and advocate for state public health leaders and others working to improve the health of women, children, and families, including those with special health care needs. AMCHP’s website includes a calendar of events, policy and advocacy resources, information on  MCH topics, and a searchable database of best practices.

Chronic Disease Community Needs Assessment Cultural Competence EBP Implementation Home Visiting Intimate Partner Violence Life Course Model Patient-centered Medical Home

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Reproductive Health

The Division’s three priority areas are: women’s reproductive health; pregnancy health; and infant health. The website contains resources and statistics on, infertility, assisted reproductive technology, depression and postpartum depression, maternal and infant health, SIDS, teen pregnancy, unintended pregnancy, women’s reproductive health, and global reproductive health.

Breastfeeding Early Elective Delivery Prenatal Care and Education Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning

National Healthy Start Association (NHSA)

NHSA is committed to improving birth outcomes and health disparities that exist within communities of color throughout the US. As the membership association for Healthy Start programs nationwide, NHSA promotes the development of community-based maternal and child health programs, particularly those addressing the issues of infant mortality, low birth weight and racial disparities in perinatal outcomes.

Breastfeeding Early Elective Delivery Prenatal Care and Education Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning

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