Indigenous mothers and birthing people, fathers, partners, caregivers, and families, can speak for themselves. So, make sure seats are available – and filled – on your projects, your teams, your boards. Many projects within the MCH field have steering committees, and all should have family representation. As I hope you’ve intuited, it’s not enough to carry a message. When I think about justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion with regard to our committees, our faculty experts, or even in our improvement advisors, I have begun to ask the question: Are there people from American Indian and Alaska Native communities here?

Browse a collection of NICHQ articles, webinars, and resources that your community found most valuable in 2022.

Join the National Institute for Children's Health Quality (NICHQ) on Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. for The Ever-Evolving Path to Equity in Children’s Health, a​ panel highlighting the evolution of NICHQ's equity work at the  2022 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting. 

With an emphasis on the need for collaborative efforts among hospitals, outpatient clinics, and local communities, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)'s recent report, Substance Use Disorder in Pregnancy: Improving Outcomes for Families, details the ways in which state perinatal collaboratives have been exceptionally effective in improving outcomes for pregnant women and infants such as by reducing risk of bloodstream infections and early term deliveries. From 2017-2022, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Reproductive Health funded 13 state perinatal quality collaboratives (PQCs) and the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ) as the coordinating center for PQCs.  

The NICHQ National Action Partnership to Promote Safe Sleep Improvement and Innovation Network (NAPPSS-IIN) project will continue to convene six Community of Practice (CoP) groups from September 2022 – March 2023. CoPs include Birthing Professionals, Community Advocacy Organizations, Community-Based Home Visitors, Early Childcare Providers, First Responders, and Researchers. Each group will convene twice to continue to address policies, improve skills, and learn from each other’s experiences in the areas of safe sleep and breastfeeding.

Kelly Edwards discusses her journey from NICHQ intern to Senior Project Manager, and shares highlights and key takeaways from the six NICHQ projects she's supported.