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.
This series of learning modules is designed for a range of health professionals, human service providers, community health workers, home visitors, and peer supporters who interact with families on topics of safe sleep and breastfeeding. The modules are designed to help users understand the Conversations Approach and gain the knowledge and skills needed to implement it to promote breastfeeding and safe sleep practices. Modules cover: A New Approach, How Babies Sleep and Eat, Understanding Current Recommendations, Anticipating Reluctance and Refusal, Respectful Dialogue and Structure of a Conversation,Creating Plans to Support Family Decisions, and Putting It All Together to Make a Difference.
Topics:
Breastfeeding Parenting Education Safe Sleep
Approaches:
Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Initiating Breastfeeding Safe Sleep Sustaining Breastfeeding
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
Moms2B provides weekly education and support sessions for expectant mothers to promote healthy lifestyle choices and link women with support services. Topics covered include: breastfeeding, child development, family planning, goal setting, prenatal labor and delivery, maternal-infant health, positive parenting, reproductive health, and safe sleep. Moms2B is provided free of charge, with transportation assistance, on-site childcare and a hot, healthy meal. Ohio State University and community social service organizations support Moms2B participants with ongoing access to healthcare providers, lactation counselors, social workers, parenting educators and community health workers. The Moms2B program is based on an evidence-based pilot curriculum shown to increase breastfeeding and improve infant health.
Topics:
Breastfeeding Nutrition Parenting Education Prenatal Care and Education Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning Safe Sleep
Approaches:
Improve Women's Health Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Initiating Breastfeeding Reproductive Life Plan Safe Sleep
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.
Family Spirit is an evidence-based early childhood home-visiting program designed for and by American Indian communities. Family Spirit combines the use of paraprofessionals from the community as home visitors and a culturally focused, strengths-based curriculum as a core strategy to support young families. From pregnancy through the child’s 3rd birthday, parents gain knowledge and skills to promote healthy development and positive lifestyles for themselves and their children. Family Spirit addresses intergenerational behavioral health problems, optimizes local cultural assets, and overcomes deficits in the professional health care workforce in low resource communities. Evidence from three randomized controlled trials has documented important results including: increased parenting knowledge and involvement; decreased maternal depression; increased home safety; decreased emotional and behavioral problems of mothers; and decreased emotional and behavioral problems of children. The Family Spirit curriculum modules cover: Prenatal Care, Infant Care, Your Growing Child, Toddler Care, My Family and Me, and Healthy Living.
Topics:
Alcohol/Drug Services Breastfeeding Depression Home Visiting Parenting Education Partner Involvement Prenatal Care and Education Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning Socio-emotional Development for Children
Approaches:
Improve Women's Health Promote Quality Strengthen Family Resilience
Benchmarks:
Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement Initiating Breastfeeding Perinatal Depression Follow Up Perinatal Depression Screening Reproductive Life Plan Safe Sleep Smoking Abstinence Sustaining Breastfeeding
Evidence Rating:
I. Evidence-based practices—have been rigorously evaluated and shown to be effective by MCH experts.
Guide to breastfeeding interventions that have been reviewed by the Cochrane Collaboration and published through the Cochrane Library, a comprehensive collection of up-to-date information on the effects of health care interventions.
Topics:
Breastfeeding
Approaches:
Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
This document provides guidance for public health professionals and others on how to select strategies to support breastfeeding mothers and increase breastfeeding rates. It offers the most relevant information on each type of strategy. Includes information that may be important to keep in mind during the planning, implementation, or evaluation phases of a strategy. Identifies specific activities for each strategy that public health professionals can take to implement strategies in specific settings, including communities, schools, child care facilities, work sites, and medical care facilities. Includes examples of programs that use the strategy as a way to support and increase breastfeeding.
Topics:
Breastfeeding
Approaches:
Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
The Touchpoints approach offers healthcare providers and early education professionals a framework to build better partnerships with families around mutual strengths-based caregiving and parent engagement, all of which benefit child outcomes. Rooted in child social, emotional and behavioral development, Touchpoints seeks to improve parent-provider relationships, improve provider relationships with each other, enhance parent-infant relationships, moderate parental stress, normalize parent’s perceptions of their child’s behavior, increase well-child care adherence, improve infant developmental outcomes, improve maternal mental health indicators, and encourage longer breastfeeding. A variety of professional tools, training activities and learning communities are offered for providers.
Topics:
Breastfeeding Other Parenting Education Socio-emotional Development for Children
Approaches:
Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
The Ten Steps are the broad framework that guide the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative. They were developed by a team of global experts and consist of evidence-based practices that have been shown to increase breastfeeding initiation and duration. Baby-Friendly® hospitals and birthing facilities must adhere to the Ten Steps to receive, and retain, a Baby-Friendly designation. This webpage lists the Ten Steps and the endorsing organizations and links to supporting resources for both hospitals and parents.
Topics:
Breastfeeding
Approaches:
Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
Provides an example of a breastfeeding policy for hospitals. Included in the CDC’s list of evidence based strategies to support breastfeeding.
Topics:
Breastfeeding
Approaches:
Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
This toolkit provides information on implementing the Perinatal Core Measure of exclusive breast milk feeding in a healthcare setting. The toolkit provides guidance on data collection and adherence to best practices.
Topics:
Breastfeeding
Approaches:
Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
Colorado-based initiative that provides informational sessions to state hospitals and medical centers on 5 Baby-Friendly steps associated with breastfeeding duration. 51 of 55 hospitals in Colorado have received training. Included in the CDC’s list of evidence based strategies to support breastfeeding.
Topics:
Breastfeeding
Approaches:
Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding
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.
Nationwide quality improvement initiative to help hospitals improve maternity care and increase the number of “Baby-friendly” designated hospitals in the US. Administered by NICHQ with the CDC and Baby-Friendly USA. Recruited 89 hospitals to participate in a 22 month learning collaborative. Hospitals use quality improvement methods to learn how to make system level changes to maternity care practices in order to be designated “baby friendly.”
Topics:
Breastfeeding
Approaches:
Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative outlines 10 steps that support the initiation of breastfeeding. The 10 Steps consist of evidence-based practices that have been proven to increase breastfeeding initiation and duration. Hospitals that have become Baby-Friendly have breastfeeding rates well above the national average. Endorsed and promoted by all major maternal and child health authorities, including CDC.
Topics:
Breastfeeding
Approaches:
Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
Developed by USDA to use the WIC Loving Support promotional campaign in a peer counseling setting. Peer counselors receive training on how to support prenatal and breastfeeding mothers in WIC programs at home over the telephone. Peer counselors may provide clinic-based counseling, make post-partum visits, lead prenatal breastfeeding classes and postpartum support groups, and/or provide one-on-one support in the hospital setting.
Topics:
Breastfeeding
Approaches:
Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding
Evidence Rating:
I. Evidence-based practices—have been rigorously evaluated and shown to be effective by MCH experts.
Staff training materials to train WIC staff in the skills required to promote and support breastfeeding in the WIC setting. Addresses adult learning strategies and core breastfeeding competencies for staff. Evidence based and informed by focus groups and interviews. Includes a CD of training materials, and video trainings available on DVD.
Topics:
Breastfeeding
Approaches:
Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
Uses child development principles to boost parent confidence, facilitate parent-child bonding, and promote breastfeeding duration. HUG has been implemented in many countries and can been integrated into nursing programs, hospitals, home visitation programs, prenatal clinics, etc. Materials include DVDs, e-newsletters, blogs, music video songs, social media, posters, and online courses. Also includes The Roadmap to Breastfeeding Success, an additional lactation online course that integrates best practices in lactation support with child development theory.
Topics:
Breastfeeding Parenting Education
Approaches:
Promote Quality Strengthen Family Resilience
Benchmarks:
Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding
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 Fathers Supporting Breastfeeding program was created by the USDA and uses a video, poster, and brochures to reach African American fathers, so that they may positively influence their partners’ decision to breastfeed. The campaign is part of national efforts to increase breastfeeding initiation and duration rates among African American women. Project materials can also be used with men in other racial and ethnic groups.
Topics:
Breastfeeding
Approaches:
Promote Quality Strengthen Family Resilience
Benchmarks:
Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides Federal grants to States for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk.
Topics:
Breastfeeding Nutrition
Approaches:
Improve Women's Health Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding Well Child Visits Well Woman Visits
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
The USDA’s recommendations for nutrition for breastfeeding mothers. Includes a customizable daily food plan for breastfeeding mothers, which keeps track of the baby’s weight and needs.
Topics:
Breastfeeding Nutrition
Approaches:
Promote Quality
Benchmarks:
Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding
Evidence Rating:
III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.
