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April 2008 |
Issue 2 |
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Spring is in the air!
Welcome to The Florida Keys
Healthy Start Coalition quarterly newsletter , a resource designed to
benefit those associated with maternal and child health, public health, and
the women and children of Welcome to new Healthy Start Program staff
We would like to formally introduce
Emily Haessler, RD, as the Healthy Start program coordinator with the Monroe
County Health Department. Emily is no stranger to the needs of our
population. She comes to us from the Monroe County Women Infant and Children
program (WIC) and is already trained in many of our mandatory service
subjects. Emily is a registered dietician and we are glad to have her passion
and energy on board. You can reach Emily at the Keys Healthy Start continues to lead
in all areas of maternal and child health! Coalition Executive
Director Arianna Nesbitt and Key West Care
coordinator Jessica Lariz completed the 40 hour lactation counselor
course in Arianna Nesbitt and Upper
Keys Coalition staff Mirine Dye were selected
to participate in the Florida Team for the American Public Health
Association Maternal and Child Health Leadership Institute with a project
on maternal and child health all-hazards preparedness. Your Coalition committees need you! So many to choose from! Please inquire to find out
about time commitments and responsibilities. Some meet ad-hoc and some meet
quarterly or before regular meetings. Don’t feel limited to just one! J By-law/audit/finance
committee contact the Coalition Healthy
Babies committee contact Jody Quality
management/program improvement committee
contact Ja Good Marketing/Fundraising/Outreach
committee contact Emily
Haessler Fetal
Infant Mortality Review committee meets ad-hoc contact Mirine Dye
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Healthy Start News and Events
Spa Day 2008!
Spa Day Because You’re
Worth It Event date is April 13, 2008, 2 pm to
6 pm at the Beachside Resort, Key West. This event raises funds to help support the
programs, education and outreach of the Florida Keys Healthy Start
Coalition and our mission to ensure that every baby gets the healthy start he or she deserves. Spa Day is a time of nurturing,
caring and indulgence. Spa tickets can be purchased for $5
each. Services are available from 1-6 tickets and include mini facial,
mini massage, manicure/pedicure, chiropractic, acupuncture, and consultations
on fitness, nutrition, health and wellness. There will also be a light
buffet, a silent auction including a 5-person hot tub spa valued at
$4,600, plus champagne punch, cash bar with live music and vendor boutiques. To purchase advance tickets,
call 296-8277, 293-8424 or 294-3998, See you there! New
Healthy Start Prenatal Screens coming soon! We rely on midwives and physicians to screen pregnant women at the
first prenatal appointment and send that screening form to our offices so
that we can identify who we need to assist. This is how our program works! It's also required by the state that ALL pregnant
women are screened, whether they receive Healthy
Start services or not. To make the form more user-friendly and up to date, the State has
designed a new form which Coalitions will be getting out to area health care
providers. The implementation plan for the revised prenatal screen involves a
gradual transition from the current form to the revised form. There currently is approximately $10,000+
of current form stock in the DOH distribution center that must be used prior
to distribution of the revised form (waste not!). As these forms make their way to Free
Healthy Start e-learning for all! Are you a Coalition member? Interested in our programs? Or do you want
to learn more about our specific areas of focus such as breastfeeding,
prenatal care, cultural issues or find out about the monthly state-wide conference
calls? Click on http://www.doh.state.fl.us/family/mch/training/training.html
for web-trainings, powerpoint presentations, and conference schedules.
Free and a great way to learn more about the issues in maternal and child
health! Good
Search ! The Coalition is now on the
Good Search page as a charity you can select before doing a search.
Each search generates a small amount of money as does going to a store for
online shopping using the Shopping key. The search engine is powered
by Yahoo. Please ask family and friends
to use this search engine and select Florida Keys Healthy Start Coalition as
their charity. Maternal and
Child Health in the news… Breastfeeding
Not Linked to Childhood Caries (Medline Plus
Article) William T.
Basco, Jr, MD, FAAP In this publication, data provide no evidence to suggest that
breastfeeding or its duration are independent risk factors for early
childhood caries, severe early childhood caries, or decayed and filled
surfaces on primary teeth. In contrast, they identify poverty, Mexican
American ethnic status, and maternal smoking as independent risk factors for
early childhood caries, which highlights the need to target poor and Mexican
American children and those whose mothers smoke for early preventive dental
visits. See the full article at http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/569494?src=mp
New findings
published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology suggest that
women who are physically abused during pregnancy are at significantly increased
risk of premature delivery. The study, which included 2,660 women interviewed
shortly after giving birth between 1999 and 2000, included 217 subjects who
delivered prematurely. Twenty-five percent of the preterm delivery mothers
reported that they had been hit, slapped, kicked or otherwise physically
abused - usually by their partner - at some point during the pregnancy, while
only eight percent of women who had gone to term reported abuse. Based on
these findings, the authors suggest that abuse should be considered a risk
factor for preterm birth and that obstetricians routinely ask women about
domestic violence. For the full text of this study, go to Calming Parents Fears: Mercury in Childhood Vaccines Excreted
Quickly
(Reuters News). The
latest chapter in the debate over whether childhood vaccines can cause autism
was written Wednesday with release of a study that showed the controversial
mercury-containing preservative thimerosal is rapidly excreted from babies'
bodies and can't reach toxic levels. The infants in the
study were put into three age groups and their blood-mercury levels were
tested both before and after vaccinations were given to newborns, and at
their 2- and 6-month checkups. Pichichero's group
found that for all three age groups, the half-life of ethyl mercury in the
blood -- the time it takes for the body to get rid of half the mercury, and
then another half, and so on -- was 3.7 days. That's significantly less than
the half-life of methyl mercury, the kind found in fish, at 44 days.
Hospital
stays frequently endanger newborns: study (AP News) Mistakes and other incidents in hospitals ranging
from administrative errors to drug overdoses frequently endanger newborns and
are often preventable, French researchers reported. Their study, which tracked all 388 babies born at a teaching
hospital in southern The researchers defined an incident as anything that
compromised the safety of a baby, whether it resulted from human error or if
it was something like an infection that could not have been prevented. "The high risk...draws attention to the importance of
developing, testing, and implementing effective error-prevention strategies
in pediatric medicine," Umberto Simeoni of the Division of Neonatology,
La Conception Hospital in Marseille and colleagues wrote in the journal
Lancet. Prior Successful Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Delivery
Linked to Low Risk for Complications in Later Attempts VBAC’s Almost
impossible for women in "Women with prior successful
VBAC attempts are at low risk for maternal and neonatal complications during
subsequent VBAC attempts," the study authors write. "An increasing
number of prior VBACs is associated with a greater probability of VBAC
success, as well as a lower risk of uterine rupture and perinatal
complications in the current pregnancy." "We believe that the findings
of this prospective analysis of a large cohort of pregnancies will provide
important information for counseling women who are considering their options
regarding VBAC," the study authors conclude. "Our results are
particularly important for those considering repeated pregnancies after an
initial cesarean delivery. Although women planning large families should
consider the risks associated with repeated cesarean deliveries, they should
be reassured by the increasing success rates and decreasing risks associated
with VBAC attempts in successive pregnancies." The National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development supported this study. The study authors have
disclosed no relevant financial relationships. Obstet Gynecol.
2008;111:285-291.
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