Title: BOARD AND COMMITTEE UPDATES
Author:
Section/SPIG: Maternal and Child Health
Issue Date:
SIDS AND INFANT MORTALITY COMMITTEE
Co-Chair: Marian MacDorman <mmacdorman@cdc.gov>
Co-Chair: Howard Hoffman <hoffmanh@nidcd.nih.gov>
Monday, Nov. 17, is a busy day for the SIDS and Infant Mortality Committee, as we are sponsoring three back-to-back sessions at the APHA Annual Meeting. Oral session #3138: Research on High Risk Birth Outcomes and SIDS/Infant Mortality, will be held from 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., and will present a compendium of recent research on SIDS, infant mortality, and related risk factors. Poster session #3214: Sudden Infant Death and Infant Mortality will be from 12:30-2:00 p.m., and will present a mix of research-oriented and program-oriented posters on SIDS and infant mortality interventions and risk reduction strategies. Oral session #3294:Challenging Determinants of Preterm Birth will be held from 2:30-4:00 p.m. This session will bring together clinicians, epidemiologists and public health professionals to discuss the challenging issue of preterm birth. Highlights will include presentations by clinicians on medical management of preterm pregnancies and its effect on the preterm birth rate and also a presentation on the March of Dimes National Prematurity Campaign. A lively discussion is anticipated.
An additional SIDS and Infant Mortality Committee-sponsored session will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 19 from 12:30-2:00 p.m., and is #5115: Programs to Reduce Health Disparities and Infant Mortality. This session will focus on public health intervention programs instituted by state and local health departments to reduce infant mortality, including several employing the Perinatal Periods of Risk Approach.
We hope that you will all be able to attend some or all of our sessions. We will also be holding our annual business meeting at the 2003 APHA meeting – to discuss emerging trends in SIDS and infant mortality research, to set priorities for research to be solicited through the APHA Call for Abstracts, and to plan future activities. The business meeting will be held on Sunday, Nov. 16 from 4:00-5:30 p.m. We invite all interested parties to attend. Information on the locations of the various sessions will be available in the program for the 2003 APHA Annual Meeting. For further information about the committee and our activities, please contact Marian MacDorman, <mmacdorman@cdc.gov>.
IMPROVING PREGNANCY OUTCOMES(IPO)COMMITTEE UPDATE
Co-Chair: Catherine Rohweder <rohweder@mail.schsr.unc.edu>
Co-Chair: Susan McLaughlin <Susan.McLaughlin@hhs.co.santa-clara.ca.us>
For the APHA Annual Meeting in November, the IPO Committee has organized six abstracts submissions into a session titled "Interventions that Make a Difference: Innovative Programs to Improve Pregnancy Outcomes." The authors will present lessons learned and evaluations from innovative MCH programs across the country.
This past spring, we wrote letters to both the March of Dimes and Dr. Benjamin, which resulted in APHA's official support of the March of Dimes Prematurity Campaign as an Alliance Member. The IPO committee has volunteered to coordinate a position paper with others in the MCH Section, which will encompass the many contributory factors to the rising rate of prematurity.
We are pleased to welcome our student representative, Anna Zakos-Feliberti from the University of Texas School of Public Health.
Finally, the IPO Meeting will be held on Sunday, Nov. 16, 2003, from 10:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
Catherine L. Rohweder, MPH
Research Associate
Smoke-Free Families National Dissemination Office
Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research
CB# 7590, 725 Airport Rd.
UNC-Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7590
Phone: 919-966-6879
FAX: 919-966-5764
E-mail: <rohweder@mail.schsr.unc.edu>
Susan McLaughlin, MPH, RN
Breastfeeding Coordinator
Nutrition and Wellness
Santa Clara County Public Health Department
976 Lenzen Ave.
San Jose, CA 95126
(408) 792-5121
<susan.mclaughlin@hhs.co.scl.ca.us>
ADOLESCENT HEALTH
Co-Chair: Joyce Eatmon <jeatmon@healthyarkansas.com>
Co-Chair: Lynn Roberts <lroberts@hunter.cuny.edu>
Are you concerned about the welfare of today's youth? Do you have a burning desire to reach out and help those youth who are headed down the wrong path? The Adolescent Health Committee is just the place for you. We in adolescent health promote programs and research with the goal of improving the health status of adolescents. In keeping with the changing needs and concerns of the adolescent population, our current focus is on wellness, risk behaviors (including sexual behavior and substance use), interpersonal violence, intentional and unintentional injury, teen parenting and school health.
Priorities for the Coming Year
1. Increase membership involvement through
-Regular contact with members via e-mail or regular mail
-Posting info on committee to Web Board
-Maintain contact with State Adolescent Health Coordinators Network
2.Active involvement in legislative issues related to adolescents
3.Promote adolescent health issues, i.e., wellness, risk behaviors, violence, unintentional & intentional injury, teen parenting, school health.
4.Create list serve of committee membership and other interested parties
The Adolescent Health Committee is still looking for members and other interested parties to join our listserv. If you are interested in being a part of the listserv, please send an e-mail with your name, organization, address, phone, fax, and email address to Joyce Eatmon at <jeatmon@healthyarkansas.com>.
We also are looking for volunteers to help in drafting a resolution on the provision of comprehensive sex education for adolescents. If you are interested in helping us draft this resolution, please contact Lynn Roberts by e-mail at <lroberts@hunter.cuny.edu>.
APHA Annual Meeting Highlights
The Adolescent Health Committee is sponsoring two (one oral and one poster) very informative sessions at this year's APHA Annual Meeting. The first session is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 17 from 8:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m., entitled “Adolescent Health: Behavior Change, Health Risk Attitudes and Risky Behavior .” In this session, presentations will be made on concerning behavioral interventions and the characteristics that influence adolescent attitudes and behavior. The second session is a compendium of issues related to adolescent health. These issues will be presented in a poster session on Tuesday, Nov. 18 from 4:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
The Adolescent Health Committee Business Meeting will be held Sunday, Nov. 16 from 4:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Please plan to join us as we make plans for the coming year, set goal and priorities and finalize plans for the resolution on comprehensive sex education for adolescents. We also will be making plans for the 2004 APHA Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.
INNOVATIONS IN MATERNITY HEALTH SERVICES
Co-Chair: Carol Nelson <cpmcnel@usit.net>
Co-Chair: Barb Levin <BarbL11@aol.com>
The mission of the Innovations in Maternity Health Services Committee is to raise the “hard” questions in childbirth: Why do we do this? Is it necessary? Is it mother and child friendly? Does it help have better outcomes? At this time in health care, with a continued growth of technology and further loss of control by childbearing families of their birth options, the committee feels that the underlying structure of maternal health care delivery should be evaluated.
This year our committee has focused on several crucial issues: What do pregnant women want and need? How do they make their decisions? Where do they get their information about birth options? How can health professionals facilitate their patients getting the most up to date evidence based information to facilitate decision making. We would like to continue to stress “partnering” of practitioner and patient.
To this end, the committee has planned a scientific sessions which confronts some of these issues. The session is entitled Evidence Based Practices in Maternity Care That Foster Patient-Provider Communication and Trust. The focus of the session is to explore the barriers to implementation of evidence based practice. We will be looking into areas such as: social determinants of birth culture; why medical practice does not follow the evidence, such as outcomes when Electronic Fetal Monitoring is used; and Caesarean Section. The session, # 4052.0 is the scheduled on Tuesday Nov. 18, at 8:30 a.m. at the 131st Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
Innovations in Maternity Health Services Business meeting will be held on Monday, Nov. 17, at 6:30-8:00 p.m. The location for the scientific session and business meeting will be announced in the final program.
Our committee is very excited to announce that the resolution, "Safe Motherhood in the United States: Reducing Maternal Mortality and Morbidity" was passed by the APHA Joint Policy Committee and will be considered by the full Governing Council. Thanks to the authors, Ina May Gaskin, Carol Nelson, and Anne Richter for their excellent work in getting this resolution on the docket for the fall meeting. The statement is in Section D-3 listed under Social and Other Issues on the APHA's policy Web page, for your review.
The co-chairs of our committee have continued to work with the Maternal Child Section (MCH) to define the role of the committee. It is an ongoing process. We hope to see many of you at our scientific session and business meeting.