Inventory of Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs) for Healthy Start Programs

Evidence-based practices include actions, activities, strategies, or approaches that improve the health of women, before, during, and after pregnancy in order to improve birth outcomes and give infants up to age two years a healthy start. Also included in the collection are informational materials and tools that make it easier to implement evidence-based practices. To search by title, use the main search box located at the top of this page.


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.

Topics:

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

Approaches:

Improve Women's Health

Benchmarks:

Health Insurance Postpartum Visit Well Woman Visits

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

A Collaborative Approach to the Treatment of Pregnant Women with Opioid Use Disorders

This guide is intended to support the efforts of states, tribes, and local communities in addressing the needs of pregnant women with opioid use disorders and their infants and families, through a coordinated, multi-sytem approach. The guide is designed to assist healthcare providers, SUD treatment providers, child welfare programs and judicial systems to improve their collaborative practice, and to offer information about additional resources that will strengthen their capacity to provide coordinated, best-practice care and services Collaborative planning and implementation of services that reflect best practices for treating opioid use disorders during pregnancy are yielding promising results in communities across the country. .

Topics:

Alcohol/Drug Services Case Management/Care Coordination Patient-centered Medical Home Prenatal Care and Education

Approaches:

Improve Women's Health

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: II. Promising practices—Innovative practices employed in the field, based on state-of-science knowledge about what works to improve outcomes, and gathering evidence of effectiveness.

The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding

For nearly all infants, breastfeeding is the best source of nutrition and immunologic protection, and it provides remarkable health benefits to mothers as well. Many mothers in the United States want to breastfeed, and most try. Yet within only three months after giving birth, more than two thirds of breastfeeding mothers have already begun using formula. By six months postpartum, more than half of mothers have given up on breastfeeding. This Call to Action describes specific steps people can take to participate in a society-wide approach to support mothers and babies who are breastfeeding. It provides recommendations for women and families, communities, health care providers, employers, public health agencies, and researchers.

Topics:

Breastfeeding Prenatal Care and Education

Approaches:

Promote Quality

Benchmarks:

Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.