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.


Prenatal and Postpartum Behavioral Counseling

An in-person and telephone-based counseling program for pregnant African-American women with the goal of reducing behavior-related risk factors during pregnancy and in the postpartum period. In addition to receiving standard prenatal care, pregnant women attend an average of four behavioral counseling sessions during pregnancy and one session after giving birth. The intervention significantly reduced health risks from baseline to 10 weeks postpartum. Early results from a study evaluating the program’s impact on birth weight and infant mortality are encouraging.

Topics:

Depression Intimate Partner Violence Tobacco Cessation

Approaches:

Promote Quality Strengthen Family Resilience

Benchmarks:

Perinatal Depression Follow Up Smoking Abstinence

Evidence Rating: I. Evidence-based practices—have been rigorously evaluated and shown to be effective by MCH experts.