Persistent racial inequities and inadequate healthcare for Black women during childbirth and postpartum have led to disturbing maternal and infant mortality disparities in the United States. The purpose of the current manuscript is to describe community-based approaches to inform the development of a maternal and child health intervention.

Having a child is a shared experience where partners influence each other's adaptation to parenthood. While much research focuses on mother-infant bonding, the impact of partners' psychological functioning on this outcome is underexplored. This study investigated how mothers' perceptions of partners' pre- and postnatal depressive and anxiety symptoms affect mother-infant bonding difficulties and whether mothers' own symptoms mediate these relationships.

This study examined disparities in prenatal care utilization by race/ethnicity and payer using three measures of inadequate prenatal care: (1) fewer than the recommended number of prenatal care visits, (2) late initiation of prenatal care (at or after 4 months gestation), or (3) no prenatal care.

Maternal HIV is associated with preterm birth (PTB). In resource-rich settings, spontaneous preterm birth (SPTB) has been linked to biomarkers of stress. We examined the association between allostatic load and SPTB among women with HIV.

Overdoses are a leading cause of maternal mortality in the US, but limited evidence exists about patterns of nonfatal overdose, a key risk factor for subsequent fatal overdose, or of other drug-related harms. Here, we estimate prevalences of nonfatal overdose and injection-related endocarditis and abscesses/cellulitis across the 21 months spanning pregnancy and the postpartum year.

This study investigated whether county COVID-19 infection rates during the first trimester were associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes and whether those disproportionately impacted Black or Hispanic women.

If not managed appropriately, diarrheal disease can lead to severe outcomes such as dehydration, secondary bacterial infections, and mortality. Seeking health care in a timely manner is known to improve the prognosis of diarrheal disease episodes. The aim of this study was to determine the drivers of delay in health seeking among children's caregivers notably in urban settings.

This meta-analysis aimed to investigate the association between maternal depression and exposure to air pollution.

Out-of-school-time recreational activities are linked to numerous socioemotional, health, and academic benefits for children. Racial and income disparities in participation persist, yet there is a lack of qualitative studies eliciting the experiences and input of primary caregivers to improve equitable access to high-quality recreational activities in marginalized communities. This study explores caregiver perceptions of the factors influencing motivations to enroll their child in activities, barriers to participation, how caregivers define quality programming, and caregiver recommendations to improve activity access and quality within under-resourced communities.

More than 80% of US maternal deaths are preventable yet maternity care in the United States (US) is becoming increasingly difficult to access. Recent years have seen the rise of maternity care deserts, defined as an area with no hospitals or birth centers offering obstetric care and without any obstetric providers. The number of counties without a birthing facility continues to grow, and 1/3 of US counties lack an obstetric clinician. The US has a maternal mortality rate that is 2-3 times greater than similar high-income countries, a steady rise in severe maternal morbidity, and markedly high infant mortality rates compared to similar countries. Traveling long distances to obtain obstetric care can impact whether a woman and infant survive an obstetric emergency such as hemorrhage. Nearly 2/3 of maternity care deserts are in rural areas, with the greatest need for maternity care located in the southern US. Maternity care deserts disproportionately impact rural, low-income, and Black women. The reasons for maternity closures are multifactorial, but are driven by hospital financial pressures and staff shortages. Government interventions are necessary to expand access to care and to keep critical obstetric units open. These interventions include increasing Medicaid reimbursements, expanding Medicaid access, expanding the perinatal workforce, setting standards for what constitutes safe distances between maternity units, and exploring mechanisms to leverage/reimagine existing programs to keep units open in critical areas. We call for urgent action given the serious public health threat to women and infants. We draw from diverse sources not commonly cited to comprehensively summarize the issues related to obstetric closures, outline the drawbacks of many previously proposed solutions, and propose some novel solutions.

Pregnant women who have no experience in the transition to motherhood may face various problems such as low self-evaluation, physically problems, low maternal attachment both in the prenatal and postpartum period.

Monitoring cerebral palsy (CP) prevalence and co-occurring conditions is crucial for planning lifelong support, but recent national estimates are somewhat limited.

Evaluate screening practices for congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV), the most common infectious cause of childhood deafness, in American birthing hospitals.

This study aimed to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a diarrhea management scale for mothers with children aged 0-24 months.

The maternal health crisis in the United States continues to affect some communities more severely than others, often due to historic and systemic barriers to care. Addressing these challenges requirehs solutions that are built with, and trusted by, the communities they serve. This supplement highlights the Safer Childbirth Cities initiative, a multi-year investment by Merck for Mothers and philanthropic partners that supported twenty community-based organizations across the country. These organizations implemented a wide range of approaches-including community-based doula care, storytelling initiatives, health information exchange systems, and new ways of defining and measuring evidence-to improve maternal health outcomes in their cities. By elevating local leadership, building trust through collaboration, and tailoring care to reflect the knowledge and needs of patients, the efforts featured here provide valuable lessons on how maternal health systems can be reshaped to deliver high quality, accessible, and culturally responsive care.

To determine the extent to which African-American women's early-life residence in urban neighborhoods with mortgage discrimination (compared to neighborhoods without mortgage discrimination) is associated with preterm birth (< 37 weeks, PTB).

Public health efforts have led to a decline in infant sleep-related deaths since 1990. Yet 3,700 infant sleep-related deaths occurred in the United States (U.S) in 2022, including sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), accidental suffocation in bed, and other unknown causes. Understanding variances in maternal characteristics and the influence on infant sleep practices, may allow for the use of targeted interventions to assist in addressing preventable infant deaths.

California has taken various actions with the goal of advancing maternal health equity. We analyze recent California laws and regulations using a novel conceptual model to understand whether and how they target expert-identified drivers of inequities in maternal health.

Neurodivergence affects how women experience the world and life transitions such as motherhood and the postpartum period. Postpartum supports are designed from a neurotypical perspective and may not meet the needs of neurodivergent women. For example, breastfeeding groups may not support the sensory needs of autistic women. The aim of this scoping review was to document postpartum experiences of neurodivergent women.

Racial disparities in maternal health outcomes are a public health crisis in the U.S. Adequate connection to pregnancy-related resources is a strategy for improving maternal outcomes (Trost et al., in Pregnancy-related deaths: Data from maternal mortality review committees in 36 States, 2017-2019. Centers for disease control and prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternal-mortality/erase-mm/data-mmrc.html , 2022), yet patients receive little support navigating complex systems. We tested the feasibility of a transition-of-care program that identifies individuals in early pregnancy who visit the emergency department (ED) and facilitates connections to needed healthcare and supportive resources.