Benchmark: Birth Spacing

Reduce the proportion of Healthy Start women participants who conceive within 18 months of a previous birth to 30%.

Pregnancies should be spaced at least 18 months apart to reduce health risks for both mother and baby. Increased risks for babies conceived within 18 months of giving birth include preterm birth, low birth weight, and small size for gestational age. Additionally, in order to achieve optimal health before another pregnancy, the mother needs time to fully recover from the previous birth.

A Performance Measure Resource Sheet is available summarizing recommended strategies and a selection of resources and evidence-based practices related to this benchmark to aid Healthy Start grantee organizations, partners and their staff in supporting the women and families they serve.

Featured Resource: Evidence-Based Practice

Family Planning: Get the Facts about Pregnancy Spacing

This patient handout discusses optimal spacing of pregnancies and describes the health benefits for both mother and baby of spacing pregnancies at least 18 months apart.

ACOG Committee Opinion on Optimizing Postpartum Care

Because one half of all pregnancy-related maternal deaths occur postpartum, the weeks following childbirth are a critical period for a woman and her infant. In addition, health issues that arise in pregnancy can persist and presage long-term medical problems. In this Committee Opinion, ACOG lays out a new vision for postpartum care, redefining it as an ongoing process beginning within the first 3 weeks postpartum and tailored to a woman’s needs. The document includes practical advice on postpartum care as well as useful charts including a Timeline for Postpartum Care, a listing of The Components of Postpartum Care, and a table identifying Members of the Postpartum Care Team.

Breastfeeding Chronic Disease Depression Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning

Ask the Expert: Improving the health of Women, Children and Men: A Primer on Preventive Services Covered Under the Affordable Care Act

Healthy Start programs are an invaluable resource for women, children and men to increase their understanding of the preventive services covered under the Affordable Care Act. For example, did you know that comprehensive breastfeeding support and counseling from trained providers, and access to breastfeeding supplies, for pregnant and nursing women is a covered benefit under Marketplace health plans at no charge to the client? This webinar will provide an overview of the preventive services that are covered for women, children and men. Given the substantial amount of content to cover the webinar has been divided up into three parts. The first webinar will be live. The two subsequent webinars will be recorded and available for listening shortly following the live webinar.

Objectives:

1. Identify the preventative health services for women (Part I), children (Part II), and men (Part III) available with no co-pay and deductible.
2. Describe access points for the service (Parts I – III)
3. Identify models of payments related to these services and how it might affect access and payment for the services (Part III)
4. Define barriers created by some states/insurers to reduce access to some services (Part III).

Webinar Materials:

Home Visiting Life Course Model Nutrition Parenting Education Prenatal Care and Education Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning Socio-emotional Development for Children STDs including HIV Tobacco Cessation

Interconception Care Toolkit

The Interconception Care Toolkit modules are designed to enhance users’ knowledge of interconception health related subjects. There are links to internet resources throughout the Modules to help you learn the content. There are questions and scenarios in each Module which will help you use the information you are learning. At the end of each of the Modules, you will be able to quiz yourselves on what you have learned.

Module 1: The Birds, The Bees, The Plan
Part 1 – Helping Your Clients Plan Their Futures and Their Families
Part 2 – Grasping the Basics of Reproduction
Part 3 – Considering If and When to Become Pregnant Again
Part 4 – From Plan to Action: Finding and Using the Right Contraception

Module 2: Weighty Matters: Understanding and Addressing Postpartum Weight Retention in the Interconception Period

Module 3: Chronic Diseases

Module 4: Poor Perinatal Outcomes

Learning Objectives:

By the end of Module 1 (Parts 1-4) you should be able to:

  1. Describe and address some of the common myths about reproduction and reproductive health
  2. Educate your clients about these myths to decrease risky behaviors
  3. Explain basic sexual anatomy and physiology for males and females
  4. Describe the main differences in how three types of contraception work
  5. Use this information to help your clients understand basic reproduction and that methods used to prevent unintended pregnancies may be different than those to prevent STI transmission
  6. Discuss the risks of unintended pregnancies and short interpregnancy intervals (IPI)
  7. Help your clients consider a reproductive life plan
  8. Discuss reproductive coercion and how it impacts reproductive decision making
  9. Navigate the website bedsider.org
  10. Explain key characteristics of the main types of contraception to your clients
  11. Understand and explain failure rates to clients
  12. Help women/couples choose an appropriate contraceptive method for their reproductive plan and their personal characteristics

By the end of Module 2 you should be able to:

  1. Describe recommended and excess maternal weight gains in pregnancy
  2. Define postpartum weight retention
  3. Identify strategies for discussing and addressing postpartum weight retention with interconception women
  4. Provide evidence-based weight loss/maintenance strategies and resources to your clients

By the end of Module 3 (Parts 1-2) you should be able to:

  1. Explain the differences between chronic diseases that predate a pregnancy and pregnancy conditions that may lead to chronic diseases in the future
  2. Discuss why both are important for a woman’s life course and the health of any future pregnancies
  3. Discuss why the interconception period is an important time to address chronic diseases
  4. Support self-management strategies to interrupt the progression of preexisting and developing chronic diseases

By the end of Module 4 you should be able to:

  1. Discuss major causes of poor pregnancy outcomes and who they are most likely to affect
  2. Discuss some of the common psychological and social impacts of poor pregnancy outcomes for women, partners, and other children
  3. Recognize normal and abnormal stages of grief
  4. Provide basic interconception guidance to women who have experienced one or more of several poor pregnancy outcomes

Chronic Disease Depression EBP Implementation Healthy Weight Home Visiting Life Course Model Parenting Education Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning STDs including HIV

Baby Basics

Baby Basics is a set of materials (book, planner, posters) and programs designed specifically to provide lower-income and lower-literacy populations with crucial prenatal health information and support. The materials are designed to be beautiful and easy to read, serving as a catalyst for learning and family literacy. Both materials and programs strive to engage and educate underserved parents to become effective users of the healthcare system and advocate for themselves and their families.

Prenatal Care and Education

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Reproductive Health

The Division’s three priority areas are: women’s reproductive health; pregnancy health; and infant health. The website contains resources and statistics on, infertility, assisted reproductive technology, depression and postpartum depression, maternal and infant health, SIDS, teen pregnancy, unintended pregnancy, women’s reproductive health, and global reproductive health.

Breastfeeding Early Elective Delivery Prenatal Care and Education Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning

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