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.

You searched for: Postpartum Tools for providers

Number of results: 23


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Mothers and Babies

Mothers and Babies (MB) is a program that promotes healthy mood management by teaching pregnant women and new moms how to effectively respond to stress in their lives through increasing the frequency of thoughts and behaviors that lead to positive mood states. Designed as a perinatal depression prevention, the Mothers and Babies targets three specific risk factors: limited social support, lack of pleasant activities, and harmful thought patterns. Mothers and Babies offers a “toolkit” of approaches for women to observe their mood, note factors affecting their mood, and make changes in their daily lives to impact these areas. Based on principles of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), attachment theory, and psychoeducation, the Mothers and Babies Course is designed to be delivered by clinic- or community-based providers from a variety of educational and professional backgrounds, and can be delivered as a group intervention or as a one-on-one intervention in various settings where pregnant women access services (e.g. prenatal clinics, home visiting programs, WIC programs, County Health Departments, etc.).

Topics:

Depression Home Visiting Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Mental Health Parenting Education Prenatal Care and Education

Approaches:

Strengthen Family Resilience

Benchmarks:

Perinatal Depression Follow Up Perinatal Depression Screening

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

2018 Prevention Resource Guide

This prevention resource guide offers information, strategies, and resources to support community service providers as they work with parents, caregivers, and children to prevent child maltreatment and promote social and emotional well-being. The guide focuses on protective factors that build on family strengths and promote optimal child and youth development. Information about protective factors is augmented with tools and strategies that help providers, advocates and policymakers integrate the factors into community programs and systems. The guide includes tip sheets for parents in English and Spanish on a range of parenting and child development topics.

Topics:

Intimate Partner Violence Life Course Model Parenting Education Partner Involvement Socio-emotional Development for Children

Approaches:

Strengthen Family Resilience

Benchmarks:

Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement Intimate Partner Violence

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

American Academy of Pediatrics/Safe Sleep

This webpage offers resources for providers and families on safe sleep practices. Resources for providers include the AAP Policy Statement: SIDS and Other Sleep-Related Infant Deaths: Updated 2016 Recommendations for a Safe Infant Sleeping Environment. Resources for families include a videos, posters and infographics on safe sleep practices.

Topics:

Parenting Education Safe Sleep

Approaches:

Promote Quality

Benchmarks:

Safe Sleep

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

IPV Health Partners Toolkit

This toolkit is designed to help health centers to build a comprehensive and sustainable response to domestic violence and sexual assault (DV/SA) in partnership with DV/SA advocacy programs (social service organizations).Through five essential steps, health centers and social service partners can build partnerships, adopt evidence-based interventions, promote patient education around IPV, and enhance practice policies, procedures, and capacities to improve long-term health and safety outcomes for women and their families.

Topics:

Case Management/Care Coordination Intimate Partner Violence Patient-centered Medical Home Risk Assessment

Approaches:

Strengthen Family Resilience

Benchmarks:

Intimate Partner Violence

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Safe Homes, Safe Babies: Perinatal Safety Card

Safe Homes, Safe Babies is a safety card for women that perinatal health care providers can distribute to patients. In addition to providing safety resources for women, this tool also functions as a prompt for perinatal health care providers by providing quick phrases to improve discussions with women about the impact of domestic violence on their parenting and children. The safety card outlines questions women may ask themselves about their relationships, birth control use and parenting, while offering supportive messages and referrals to national support services for help.

Topics:

Depression Intimate Partner Violence Risk Assessment

Approaches:

Strengthen Family Resilience

Benchmarks:

Intimate Partner Violence Perinatal Depression Screening

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

WINGS (Women Initiating New Goals of Safety)

Failure to address IPV among women who use alcohol or other drugs has been found to increase the likelihood of continued drug use, relapse, attrition from drug treatment and a host of other negative physical and mental health consequences. WINGS is a single-session intervention that aims to address a critical gap in IPV services for women by identifying women in the community at risk of IPV, enabling them to develop social support and safety planning skills to reduce their risks for IPV and linking them to IPV-related services and substance use treatment. The intervention may be delivered in-person or via a computerized self-paced version.

Topics:

Alcohol/Drug Services Intimate Partner Violence

Approaches:

Strengthen Family Resilience

Benchmarks:

Intimate Partner Violence

Evidence Rating: II. Promising practices—Innovative practices employed in the field, based on state-of-science knowledge about what works to improve outcomes, and gathering evidence of effectiveness.

Thinking Healthy: A manual for psychosocial management of perinatal depression

This manual is designed for training community health workers on how to support expecting and new mothers with depression, using evidence-based cognitive behavioral techniques. Community Health Workers can assist depressed mothers to change their unhealthy patterns of thinking and behavior, leading to an improvement in their mood and functioning, and prevention of later problems in their infants. The manual provides a step-by-step guide for CHWs implementing the Thinking Healthy intervention in 15 sessions with mothers (from pregnancy through baby’s first 10 months), and includes a structured process for each session, activities, worksheets and charts, and communication tips. This manual is a generic version for global use of a manual originally developed in Pakistan and later used in many other countries.

Topics:

Depression Parenting Education

Approaches:

Strengthen Family Resilience

Benchmarks:

Perinatal Depression Follow Up Perinatal Depression Screening

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

SmokefreeMOM

SmokefreeMOM is a mobile text messaging service designed for pregnant women across the United States to help them quit smoking. The program provides 24/7 encouragement, advice, and tips to help pregnant women and mothers quit smoking and stay quit. The messages in the program have been designed around not only a women’s quit date but also their child’s birthdate. The frequency of messages will vary depending on smoking status. Users can receive additional quit support by texting one of the SmokefreeMOM keywords.

Topics:

Tobacco Cessation

Approaches:

Promote Quality

Benchmarks:

Smoking Abstinence

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Effectiveness of Family Planning Methods

This webpage provides basic information on a variety of contraceptive methods, including a link to a poster comparing typical effectiveness of contraceptive methods. The poster can be used to show women and men the range of contraception choices available to them, and which methods work best at preventing pregnancy. The webpage also provides additional resources on contraception for health care providers and consumers.

Topics:

Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning

Approaches:

Improve Women's Health Promote Quality

Benchmarks:

Reproductive Life Plan

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

Mental Health First Aid

Mental Health First Aid is an 8-hour course that gives people the skills to help someone who is developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis. The evidence behind the program demonstrates that it does build mental health literacy, helping the public identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illness. Mental Health First Aiders learn a 5-step action plan that guides them through the process of reaching out and offering appropriate support. The “adult course” is available in both English and Spanish, and covers anxiety, depression, psychosis, and addictions in adults. The “youth course” is for adults who interact regularly with young people ages 12-18.

Topics:

Alcohol/Drug Services Depression

Approaches:

Strengthen Family Resilience

Benchmarks:

Perinatal Depression Follow Up Perinatal Depression Screening

Evidence Rating: II. Promising practices—Innovative practices employed in the field, based on state-of-science knowledge about what works to improve outcomes, and gathering evidence of effectiveness.

The Injury Prevention Program (TIPP): A Guide to Safety Counseling in Office Practice

Counseling parents and children about the prevention of common childhood injuries is an important contribution toward preventing the major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality. TIPP is designed to provide a systematic method for pediatricians to counsel parents and children about adopting behaviors to prevent injuries—behaviors that are effective and capable of being accomplished by most families.This Guide includes a table showing the major safety issues and injury hazards for each age group for children 0-10 years old, and provides counseling guidelines for educating parents about injury prevention tailored to the age of their child.

 

Topics:

Parenting Education

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Well Child Visits

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

MothertoBaby

MothertoBaby is the leading authority providing up-to-date, evidence-based information to mothers, healthcare professionals, and the general public regarding the effects of medications and other exposures on pregnancy and breastfeeding. The website contains fact sheets in English and Spanish covering the risks of over 50 pharmaceuticals (listed alphabetically), herbal products, and other common lifestyle and occupational exposures. Excellent sections on tobacco, alcohol, and mood-altering drugs are included, as well as information on the safety of vaccines during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Experts are also available to answer individual questions confidentially by telephone, email, or text.

Topics:

Alcohol/Drug Services Breastfeeding Immunization Prenatal Care and Education Risk Assessment Tobacco Cessation

Approaches:

Promote Quality

Benchmarks:

Initiating Breastfeeding Smoking Abstinence

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Strong Families/Healthy Relationships Resources

This section of the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse provides resources on healthy relationships for programs that serve families. Healthy marriages and healthy relationships can serve an important role in promoting responsible fatherhood initiatives. Whether the fathers and families in your programs are currently married or not, integrating healthy relationship skills into your programs can better support fathers’ relationships with their partners and improve their co-parenting situations, leading to healthier models and environments for their children.

Topics:

Partner Involvement

Approaches:

Strengthen Family Resilience

Benchmarks:

Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership

Medical‐legal partnership (MLP) is an approach to health that integrates the work of healthcare, public health, and civil legal aid to more effectively identify, treat, and prevent health‐harming legal needs for patients, clinics, and populations. MLP addresses legal needs in the areas of income supports and insurance; housing and utilities; employment and education; legal status; and personal and family stability. MLP:

  • Trains healthcare, public health, and legal teams to work collaboratively and identify needs upstream;
  • Treats individual patients’ health‐harming social and legal needs with legal care ranging from triage and consultations to legal representation;
  • Transforms clinic practice and institutional policies to better respond to patients’ health‐harming social and legal needs; and
  • Prevents health‐harming legal needs broadly by detecting patterns and improving policies and regulations that have an impact on population health. 

Topics:

Case Management/Care Coordination Insurance Coverage Other Risk Assessment

Approaches:

Achieve Collective Impact Improve Women's Health

Benchmarks:

CAN Implementation Health Insurance

Evidence Rating: II. Promising practices—Innovative practices employed in the field, based on state-of-science knowledge about what works to improve outcomes, and gathering evidence of effectiveness.

Interconception Care Project of California

The Interconception Care Project of California is a collection of recommendations to improve and promote the interconception health of women by maximizing care during the postpartum visit. The website contains links to free evidence-based clinical management algorithms for the 21 most common pregnancy and delivery complications in California. Patient education materials offering explanations of the conditions, treatment options, and self-care strategies to reduce risks in future pregnancies are also free and available in English and Spanish.

Topics:

Other Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning Risk Assessment

Approaches:

Promote Quality

Benchmarks:

Birth Spacing

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

The CDC Guide to Breastfeeding Interventions

Guide to breastfeeding interventions that have been reviewed by the Cochrane Collaboration and published through the Cochrane Library, a comprehensive collection of up-to-date information on the effects of health care interventions.

Topics:

Breastfeeding

Approaches:

Promote Quality

Benchmarks:

Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

The CDC Guide to Strategies to Support Breastfeeding Mothers and Babies

This document provides guidance for public health professionals and others on how to select strategies to support breastfeeding mothers and increase breastfeeding rates. It offers the most relevant information on each type of strategy. Includes information that may be important to keep in mind during the planning, implementation, or evaluation phases of a strategy. Identifies specific activities for each strategy that public health professionals can take to implement strategies in specific settings, including communities, schools, child care facilities, work sites, and medical care facilities. Includes examples of programs that use the strategy as a way to support and increase breastfeeding.

Topics:

Breastfeeding

Approaches:

Promote Quality

Benchmarks:

Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Touchpoints

The Touchpoints approach offers healthcare providers and early education professionals a framework to build better partnerships with families around mutual strengths-based caregiving and parent engagement, all of which benefit child outcomes. Rooted in child social, emotional and behavioral development, Touchpoints seeks to improve parent-provider relationships, improve provider relationships with each other, enhance parent-infant relationships, moderate parental stress, normalize parent’s perceptions of their child’s behavior, increase well-child care adherence, improve infant developmental outcomes, improve maternal mental health indicators, and encourage longer breastfeeding. A variety of professional tools, training activities and learning communities are offered for providers.

Topics:

Breastfeeding Other Parenting Education Socio-emotional Development for Children

Approaches:

Promote Quality

Benchmarks:

Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding

The Ten Steps are the broad framework that guide the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative. They were developed by a team of global experts and consist of evidence-based practices that have been shown to increase breastfeeding initiation and duration. Baby-Friendly® hospitals and birthing facilities must adhere to the Ten Steps to receive, and retain, a Baby-Friendly designation. This webpage lists the Ten Steps and the endorsing organizations and links to supporting resources for both hospitals and parents.

Topics:

Breastfeeding

Approaches:

Promote Quality

Benchmarks:

Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Health Cares About IPV

This toolkit for providers offered by Futures without Violence® includes assessment tools for screening women for IPV in a clinical setting, and information on supported referral and counseling. Accompanying materials available for purchase include promotional materials for healthcare settings, and the publication Addressing Intimate Partner Violence, Reproductive and Sexual Coercion: A Guide for Obstetric, Gynecologic and Reproductive Health Care Settings.

Topics:

Intimate Partner Violence

Approaches:

Strengthen Family Resilience

Benchmarks:

Intimate Partner Violence

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

The Smoking Cessation Reduction in Pregnancy Treatment (SCRIPT) Program

The SCRIPT program is designed to be a component of a patient education program for prenatal care providers. The program includes A Pregnant Woman’s Guide to Quit Smoking, a 40 page guide outlining a self-evaluation process to help women quit smoking over a 7 day period; a 15 minute motivational DVD; comprehensive counseling to help pregnant smokers quit or reduce their smoking; and follow up programming to help mothers establish a non-smoking home after birth.

Topics:

Tobacco Cessation

Approaches:

Promote Quality

Benchmarks:

Smoking Abstinence

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

MCH Life Course Toolbox

This toolbox is an online resource for Maternal and Child Health researchers, academics, practitioners, policy advocates, and others in the field to share information, innovative strategies, and tools to integrate the Life Course Perspective into MCH work at the local, state, and national levels. Includes resources and tools to learn about the Life Course Perspective and strategies to incorporate the Life Course model into practice and policy.

Topics:

Life Course Model

Approaches:

Improve Women's Health

Benchmarks:

Usual Source of Care

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

5A’s – Five Major Steps to Intervention

An easy-to-implement, evidence-based clinical counseling approach. The 5 A’s: Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange are 5 steps providers can use to identify appropriate interventions based on a patient’s willingness to quit.

Topics:

Tobacco Cessation

Approaches:

Promote Quality

Benchmarks:

Smoking Abstinence

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.