Healthy Generations eNewsletter

The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with rates of reproductive-aged women in prisons and jails skyrocketing in recent decades. For incarcerated pregnant people, birth is typically followed by near immediate separation from their newborn. This traumatic practice has long been standard practice in carceral settings.

However, twelve states have developed alternatives to incarceration, which can occur at various points in the criminal legal system, to address the complex needs of pregnant and postpartum people and their families. Learn about these states, their eligibility criteria, and where laws prevent the separation of the biological mother from their newborn by reading the Center’s newest policy brief, Alternatives to Incarceration for Pregnant and Postpartum People in the U.S.

Kudos and thanks to MCHer Rosie Laine, who served as the lead author for this brief.

-Sign up to receive the monthly newsletter Reproductive (In)Justice: A Newsletter on Pregnancy & Parenting in Prisons.

For most incarcerated people, birth is followed by near immediate separation from their newborn: biological mothers return to prison and infants are placed with alternative caregivers in the community. Rarely are postpartum people in custody given the resources they need to successfully breastfeed or sustain their milk supply through pumping and milk storage. Though limited, 6 states have laws with written policies on breastfeeding and lactation support for incarcerated postpartum people in the U.S.

Learn about these states, their eligibility criteria, and what types of lactation support they offer by reading the Center’s new policy brief, Breastfeeding & Lactation Support for Incarcerated People in the U.S. a product of the Cross-Center Collaboration on the Health of Justice-Involved Women and Children.

Kudos and thanks again to MCHer Rosie Laine, who served as the lead author for this brief.

A March 27, 2023 press release from MDH details a collaborative pilot program focused on improving the health of children and their incarcerated parents by facilitating more than 3,500 video visits, as well as having hundreds of parents complete parenting education programs in and outside of jail. This effort has taken on additional importance after the 2022 Minnesota Student Survey indicated nearly one in every five teens in some areas of Greater Minnesota is impacted by parental incarceration. This makes it one of the most frequently reported adverse childhood experiences in Minnesota. Led by the Center’s Dr. Rebecca Shlafer, researchers found in 2017 that about two-thirds of adults in Minnesota jails were parents with children younger than age 18. Most of these parents lived with at least one of their children before arrest, and a majority were interested in parenting education.

To learn more, watch this short video Minnesota Model Jail Practices: Supporting Families, and access toolkits, presentations, courses, and details about individual jail efforts on the MDH website Supporting Children of Incarcerated Parents.

-Read MCH student MacKenzie O’Kane’s Student Spotlight about her experience contributing to this work. Look for MCH student Tia Peterson’s upcoming Spotlight, which highlights her involvement in this project!

#UMNMCH student Amanda Moses (she/her/hers) (MPH 2023) wrote this reflection on how her career, internships, and MCH Student Interest Group (MCHIG) executive board position have all contributed to her career in MCH.

#UMNMCH student Monica Marcial Gutierrez (she/her/hers) (MPH 2024) wrote this reflection on how her experiences as a WIC nutritionist inspired her to pursue her Master’s in MCH and to become an executive board member of the MCH Student Interest Group (MCHIG).

Candace Jarzombek, from the HRSA-funded Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health at Boston University, is the newest author for the Health Equity Edition of MCH Leads, the student-led national MCH trainee blog. In her blog post Candace applies MCH competency 4 (Critical Thinking) to her work with BabyCare, a home visiting program for Medicaid-enrolled pregnant and postpartum individuals and their infants provided through Virginia’s Local Health Districts (LHD). “Evaluations of one LHD’s BabyCare program have shown impacts on infant health outcomes such as premature birth and low birthweight...” Continue reading more about Candace’s health equity efforts here.

The Center is proud to co-sponsor the following events:

April 27, 2023 | 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM CDT

Personal narratives are powerful tools for researchers and practitioners alike. They can be used to educate, influence, train, advocate, and reflect in the public health field. Harnessing the power of these narratives is an important skill. This session on digital storytelling from the StoryCenter will be a brief introduction to the process of gathering and presenting personal narratives for public health use. As a leader in the global storytelling movement, the StoryCenter has decades of experience helping organizations and individuals bolster their storytelling skills.

-Register

July 24-26, 2023 | 9:00 AM - 3:30 PM CDT | Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center | $300

The 2023 Summer Institute in Adolescent Health invites you to challenge what you know and disrupt the status quo. Examine current and historical trends in adolescent sexual health and explore ever-changing laws and policies regarding access to abortion and contraception. Apply an intersectionality framework to sexual health education, health disparities research, and the impact of mainstream pornography. Hear directly from young people who are organizing for reproductive justice and building youth power in Minnesota. Connect with other caring adults who are passionate about supporting adolescents in this critical time.

-Register

Research on maternal mortality tends to focus on clinical risk factors and the quality of hospital-based care, but what about maternal safety outside the clinical setting — in homes and communities? A new study from the UMN School of Public Health’s Katy Kozimannil, researcher Julia Interrante, and student Phoebe Chastain finds intimate partner violence is a leading cause of maternal injury and deaths, yet screening is not routine.

-Read

April 12, 2023 | 1:00 - 2:00 PM CDT

Join this webinar hosted by the Office of Head State (OHS) to learn about protecting young children's hearing and strategies to share with staff and families about preventing ear infections and injuries. This webinar is presented in English, with a Spanish webinar on April 26, 2023, 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM CDT.

-Register

April 13, 2023 | 12:30 PM - 4:30 PM CDT | $60

The Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health (MACMH) is hosting this webinar to help professionals shift their behavioral paradigm lens from the traditional behavioral approach toward current relational and neuroscience research. Participants will get a deep dive into how to make these common processes more trauma-sensitive, neurodiversity-affirming, and aligned with current research.

-Register

April 14, 2023 | 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM CDT | 3-110 Health Science Education Center, Twin Cities Campus

The UMN SPH is sponsoring this state-wide forum to represent missing and murdered American Indian Women and girls. Participants will hear from speakers Karen Diver and Ruth Buffalo as they share about the lives of the American Indian community and introduce the Red Dress Story. Guests are encouraged to bring a red dress to donate.

-Register

April 19, 2023 | 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CDT

Community health centers (CHC) are expanding their mobile health programs to increase COVID support, oral health, primary care, and behavioral health services. Similarly, domestic violence programs are developing their own programs to support the health of their clients and staff. This webinar will explore the opportunities for these entities to collaborate as they consider utilizing mobile health services and increasing health enrollment.

-Register

April 23-25, 2023 | Duluth, MN

MACMH is hosting a three-day conference designed for all individuals who work with or care for infants, children, adolescents, and their families. This conference is one of the largest of its kind in the country. There are over 85 different workshops that participants can choose from to tailor their experience.

-Register

April 24, 2023 | 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM CDT

Across the nation, states are considering, planning for, or implementing Medicaid doula service benefits to better support pregnant and birthing people. However, developing and implementing these benefits requires collaboration from various stakeholders, including doulas, pregnant and birthing people, government officials, payers, clinicians, and hospital administrators. Understanding the perspectives of stakeholders, doulas, and families may help to facilitate implementation efforts.

-Register

April 26, 2023 | 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM CDT

Homicide, suicide, and drug overdoses, all of which are strongly tied to intimate partner violence (IPV), account for a large number of deaths during pregnancy. Therefore, addressing family planning clients’ relationships, mental health, and substance use is an essential part of providing quality reproductive health care. Intended for family planning clinical services providers and staff, this webinar will review how IPV, substance use, and maternal mortality intersect. The presenter will also describe the known risks of and contributing factors to IPV and substance use, and will share recommendations for how family planning agencies can help prevent IPV- and substance use-related maternal deaths.

-Register

April 27, 2023 | 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM CDT

Join the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MNCASA) for a conversation with Dr. Roxane Gay about sexual violence, individual’s relationship to their bodies, rape culture, colonialism, and oppression. Dr. Roxane Gay’s notable works include Hunger, Dr. Gay’s autobiography focused on her relationship with her body and experience as a survivor of sexual violence; Bad Feminist, a collection of essays widely considered the quintessential exploration of modern feminism; and Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture, a searing anthology on the realities of rape culture.

-Register

April 27, 2023 | 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM CDT | Brooklyn Center, MN

Join Hennepin County and trusted partners in celebrating National Infant Immunization Week at Brookdale Library! Organizers are providing free infant immunizations and well-child check-ups. There will also be 11+ other established public health and healthy infant organizations attending including Voices and Vaccine, Car Seat programs, immunization education, free food, free books, home visiting programs, WIC, and more!

May 4, 2023 | 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM CDT | Minneapolis, MN

The UMN’s Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW) is hosting a one-day in-person conference with an opportunity for groups to stream live. Along with the keynote speaker, this applied approach conference will feature several panels composed of people with lived experience and those in a variety of professions that intersect with child welfare including housing, behavioral health, law, and more.

-Register

May 4, 2023 | 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM CDT

In early childhood programs, staff and families are important in helping children learn about their growing bodies and minds. Laying a healthy foundation in the earliest years can set the stage for a lifetime of healthy habits. Health literacy makes sure families can find, understand, and use information that helps them make decisions and take action for their health. Including health literacy practices, at the personal and organizational levels, can improve children’s health. Join the team from the Sesame Workshop to learn about health literacy resources to help support families through healthy and not-so-healthy times, and to help caregivers understand, appreciate, and involve children in learning about and caring for their bodies.

-Register

May 15 - June 2, 2023 | Minneapolis, MN, and Virtual

Looking to broaden your career options, gain new skills, or simply explore topics in public health? Take part in the Public Health Institute (PHI) at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Design an educational experience that can be applied toward a degree program or professional continuing education. Registration for continuing education opens on February 23. Academic credit is also available to students. 32-course offerings are available. 5 courses are available exclusively online.

The UMN Extension Family Development created this video to encompass how family and community stressors can influence individual mental health. Through the socio-ecological model, the extension provides approaches to improve family and community environments to create a positive impact on individual mental health.

The National Clinical Training Center for Family Planning (NCTCFP) Reproductive Justice podcast series talks with Dr. Krystale Littlejohn, sociologist and author of the book Just Get on the Pill, about how pregnancy prevention is seen as gendered and how this creates an uneven burden on women.

-Listen

• The Root Cause Coalition 2023 National Summit on the Social Determinants of Health (December 3-5, 2023 | Minneapolis, MN) Submit proposals by April 17, 2023.

• National Maternal Health Innovation Symposium (in-person: August 2-3, 2023 | Kansas City, MO; August 9-10, 2023 virtual) Submit proposals by Friday, April 21, 2023.

• MDH Regional Health Equity Network Grant Submit proposals by April 28, 2023.

You received this message because you have subscribed to the Healthy Generations listserv. This newsletter is produced monthly by the Center for Leadership Education in Maternal and Child Public Health at the University of Minnesota. Email mch@umn.edu to have your event, resource, or publication included in our eNewsletter.

Copyright © 2022 The Center for Leadership Education in Maternal & Child Public Health - University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.