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Birth & Parenting News: Free Resources to Help Smokers Quit
Free Resources to Help Smokers Quit. Two new resources are available from the American Legacy Foundation to help smokers quit. BecomeAnEx.org is a free, interactive website designed to help smokers re-learn life without cigarettes. The site was developed in partnership with the Mayo Clinic and offers a free, personalized plan for quitting, plus a support community to help smokers prepare to quit and stay quit. As part of an ongoing promotion of BecomeAnEx.org, Legacy is offering free info cards for distribution to smokers and a free tear-off flyer that can be posted on bulletin boards in areas frequented by smokers.
Each Wednesday, our Birth & Parenting News blog highlights the latest news items, research results, consumer alerts, and legislative action alerts of interest to expectant and new parents and the professionals who work them.
Birth & Parenting News: New Crib Safety Standards
New and improved crib safety standards approved by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) are in effect as of late June. The manufacture and sale of drop-side cribs is now banned. The new rules make it illegal to sell or donate old cribs, even at yard or garage sales.
Each Wednesday, our Birth & Parenting News blog highlights the latest news items, research results, consumer alerts, and legislative action alerts of interest to expectant and new parents and the professionals who work them.
Doula Programs: The National Cost of Unintended Pregnancies
More funding angles for those interested in maternal and infant health in the U.S., including doula program managers. Put your ideas, interventions, and educational initiatives into action and make the case!
Reports reveal national cost of unintended pregnancies. Two new studies taking different methodological approaches arrive at the same conclusion: unintended pregnancy costs U.S. taxpayers roughly $11 billion each year. Both estimate that the potential public savings from reducing unintended pregnancy in the U.S. would be huge.
“The Public Costs of Births Resulting from Unintended Pregnancies: National and State-Level Estimates,” by the Guttmacher Institute, relied on data from 2006 to estimate costs for each state, which were then added together to arrive at a national total. The study found that two thirds of births resulting from unintended pregnancies (more than one million births!) are publicly funded, and the proportion tops 80% in a couple of states. The cost of those births, and the potential gross saving from helping women to avert them, is estimated at $11.1 billion.
A breakdown by state, using 2006 data, shows that of Michigan’s 127,500 births that year, 55,500 were publicly funded and 62% of those publicly-funded births resulted from unintended pregnancies. “At a time when policymakers everywhere are looking for ways to cut costs under Medicaid, these findings point clearly to a way to achieve that goal by expanding access to health care, not cutting it,” said author Adam Sonfield. “Investing in publicly-funded family planning to help women avoid unintended pregnancy has a proven track record. In the absence of the services provided at publicly-funded family planning centers, the costs of unintended pregnancy would be 60% higher than they are today.”
“Unintended Pregnancy and Taxpayer Spending,” by the Brookings Institution, estimated the cost of unintended pregnancy by counting 2001 national estimates of the outcomes of publicly-financed unintended pregnancies (births, abortions, miscarriages, and need for infant medical care) and multiplying those counts by the average cost per outcome. The estimates of the cost to taxpayers of providing medical services to women who experience unintended pregnancies and to the infants who are born as a result of such pregnancies range between $9.6 and $12.6 billion per year (average $11.3 billion). The estimates of the public savings that would result if these unintended pregnancies were prevented range from $4.7 billion to $6.2 billion per year (average $5.6 billion).
The Doula Programs blog provides a forum for doula program visionaries and implementers to consider common challenges, ask questions, and learn from each other. Patty Brennan is the author of The Doula Business Guide: Creating a Successful MotherBaby Business.
Birth & Parenting News: Breastfeeding & SIDS
A study appearing in the June edition of the journal Pediatrics examines whether breastfeeding lowers the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The study authors found that breastfeeding is protective against SIDS, reducing the risk by up to 73%, and that this effect is stronger with exclusive breastfeeding. Read the article.
Each Wednesday, our Birth & Parenting News blog highlights the latest news items, research results, consumer alerts, and legislative action alerts of interest to expectant and new parents and the professionals who work them.
Doula Programs: Treatment of mothers’ depression benefits children
Doula program managers are always looking for funding angles. It shouldn’t be too hard to make the case for doulas, because there are so many gaps in services and unmet needs. And there is great potential for new moms and their families to benefit from doula care.
For example, a recent article in the Wall Street Journal highlights the importance of treating depression in mothers. The article cites a study in the American Journal of Psychiatry which showed that treating a mother’s depression has long-lasting benefits for her children’s mental health. When a mother’s depression is treated successfully, her children show decreases in problem behaviors and symptoms. More than 400,000 infants are born to depressed mothers each year in the U.S., and children under age one are especially vulnerable to parents’ depression. Approximately one in eight women are likely to develop depression at some point in their lives, with the greatest incidence in the childbearing years. It is estimated that 24% of women become depressed during or after pregnancy. The American Academy of Pediatrics has urged pediatricians to screen all new mothers for signs of postpartum depression.
The Doula Programs blog provides a forum for doula program visionaries and implementers to consider common challenges, ask questions, and learn from each other. Patty Brennan is the author of The Doula Business Guide: Creating a Successful MotherBaby Business.
Birth & Parenting News: Holistic Fertility Support Group
The struggle to conceive can be a very emotional and taxing journey. In conjunction with conventional medical treatments, there are several aspects of health and well-being that can be addressed through complementary medicine. These techniques include diet, exercise, acupuncture, herbs, and supplements. Coping skills to manage the emotional rollercoaster of infertility are also essential. This group provides the opportunity for women to come together and learn about holistic approaches to prepare the body for pregnancy. Most importantly, this group provides the opportunity for women to share their experience with other women who are going through the same struggle. Acupuncture Healthcare Associates of Michigan, in West Bloomfield.
Each Wednesday, our Birth & Parenting News blog highlights the latest news items, research results, consumer alerts, and legislative action alerts of interest to expectant and new parents and the professionals who work them.
Doula Programs: Risk Management Strategies
We continue with our strategies for limiting liability associated with running a doula program.
- Support the doulas with administrative boundary setting. It is important to establish clear and systematic expectations for both volunteers and clients. Deliver a consistent message to clients regarding available services, limits to services, and the timeframe for services. This can be accomplished through: (a) a descriptive brochure (written at a third-grade level of literacy and also translated into Spanish) that clients receive from their care provider or other referring agency, (b) a verbal explanation during the initial phone enrollment interview with the program coordinator, and (c) a reiteration in writing, sent out in the form of a Welcome Letter and Client Contract (see more below). Doulas should be informed of the steps staff members are taking to set boundaries on their behalf and are mandated to work within the specified parameters as a condition of participation with the program, as noted above.
- Create a doula contract. Doulas are mandated to work within the specified scope of practice and other program-specific parameters as a condition of participation with the program and sign a contract to that effect.
The Doula Programs blog provides a forum for doula program visionaries and implementers to consider common challenges, ask questions, and learn from each other. Patty Brennan is the author of The Doula Business Guide: Creating a Successful MotherBaby Business.
Birth & Parenting News: Three More Weeks
In an effort to improve the health of infants, the March of Dimes, the National Institute of Health, and the US Food and Drug Administration have teamed up to change current beliefs that infants born at 37 weeks gestation fare as well as those born at 40 weeks. The study, titled “Term Pregnancy: A Period of Heterogeneous Risk for Infant Mortality,” was published in Obstetrics & Gynecology, Vol. 117, No. 6, June 2011. The research showed the risk of infant mortality was the highest for infants born at 37 weeks and declined with each additional week until 40 weeks. In 2006 the infant mortality rate for babies born at 40 weeks was 1.9 for every 1,000 births. Just three weeks earlier, at 37 weeks, the rate increased to 3.9 per 1,000 births. This trend was noted in all ethnicities and races, although non-Hispanic black infants had the highest mortality and the smallest declines at weeks 37 and 38. It is absolutely apparent that each additional week of pregnancy is indeed beneficial to a newborn’s survival. For detailed national, state and local perinatal statistics visit the March of Dimes PeriStats web site.
Each Wednesday, our Birth & Parenting News blog highlights the latest news items, research results, consumer alerts, and legislative action alerts of interest to expectant and new parents and the professionals who work them.