Racism and Health: The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued its first policy addressing the impact of racism on child and adolescent health, as reported by AAP Gateway, the American Academy of Pediatrics’ newsmagazine. The policy, The Impact of Racism on Child and Adolescent Health, provides a historical analysis of factors that have led to racism, and how it undermines health outcomes. Racism is linked to birth disparities and mental health problems in children and adolescents and is also associated with chronic stress that leads to inflammation –– a precursor for many illnesses. The policy provides practical approaches for pediatricians to address racism in their own practices and shares ways they can educate parents and children on how to identify racism when they experience it. Dr. Maria Trent, co-author of the report, hopes that these suggested practices will lead to greater, systemic change: “We really want pediatricians to listen to children and their families, using a culturally competent, patient-centered and family-engaged approach to begin the process of healing and change,” she said in an interview with American University Radio.
Block by Block: The city of Sacramento’s effort to reduce preventable death in black children is surpassing expectations, reports KPCC’s Priska Neely. Known as the Black Child Legacy Campaign, the initiative began in 2015 and has led to declines in child-death in three categories: infant sleep-related, child abuse/neglect and third-party homicide. The only category that showed no improvement was perinatal conditions, which is currently the largest cause of preventable death in black infants –– an issue that also plagues L.A. County. The people behind the community-driven efforts shared five lessons to inspire L.A. county: focus on data; “name the enemy” by directly identifying the causes; foster community-led organization and ownership; and recognize the larger forces at work such as systemic racism and having a “targeted but universal approach.”
New Series: SELF magazine has launched a new editorial series examining the nationwide issue of black maternal mortality and morbidity. Designed to arm African-American mothers-to-be with “as much information as possible before they find themselves in the labor or delivery room,” the first series covers three stories of black mothers. The first story profiles Olympian sprinter Allyson Felix, who spent an entire month in the NICU after giving birth and is now fighting to save black mothers like herself. The second piece focuses on policies and practices affecting the crisis, “How California Cut Its Maternal Death Rate in Half,” and also features a Q&A with presidential candidates on how they plan to address the issue. The third piece is an informative story to help black-mothers-to-be navigate their pregnancy journey: 11 Health Condition You Should Know About if You’re Pregnant and Black.
Related Articles:
|
|
Disconnected: While parents are spending more time with their kids than they did 50 years ago, technology is impacting the quality of their interactions, reports Quartz. According to a new survey by Pew Research Center, a quarter of American parents are online “almost constantly” which may result in devastating consequences for their kids. Experts warn that distracted parents on devices don’t have “serve-and-return” interactions with their babies. In a 2017 experiment, an infant development researcher found that when parents tried to teach their 2-year-old words but were interrupted by a phone call, the toddlers didn’t learn the words, whereas the ones whose parents were not interrupted did learn them. And language comprehension isn’t the only thing to worry about –– researchers in 2012 found that when kids feel ignored by parents on their phones, they tend to “act out” in a bid for attention.
Dirty Diapers: Diaper-giant Pampers recently announced the launch of a new “smart” diaper product called “Lumi” that tracks a baby’s wet diapers and alerts parents via an app when it’s time for a diaper-change, reports in The Washington Post. According to the The Wall Street Journal, companies like Pampers’ Procter & Gamble are inventing new ways to sell more expensive baby products to make up for declining revenues due to the drop in birth-rate. While the kit is being marketed as a way to help parents understand their baby’s routine with data, critics are saying it’s a new extreme of “helicopter parenting” that may lead parents to be overly anxious with unnecessary information, according to ABC News. Perhaps popular with new, millennial parents who are accustomed to tracking data with technology, a veteran parent at Fast Company and another one at The Week encourage parents to instead use their original “smart” diaper device: their nose.
|
|
Politics and Current Events
|
|
Presidential Election 2020
The 2020 presidential race is officially upon us with Democrats entering the second round of debates this week. During last night’s debate, Former Vice President Joe Biden came under heat for being the sole senator to have voted against expanding a childcare tax credit in 1981, as reported in The Huffington Post. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, having recently announced plans to expand the credit if elected president, assailed Biden over his vote against the expansion on the grounds of it being “wrong for both parents to work outside the home unless it was financially necessary,” as reported by The New York Times and NPR.
Education has also been a central issue as candidates share their platforms. The Washington Post has put together a guide to see where Democratic candidates stand on the various education issues, including universal preschool. Some candidates have more of a proven history of supporting early childhood education than others, however. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio led the charge in bringing universal pre-k to New York City and plans to do the same nationwide, reports Essence. In an op-ed for CNN, de Blasio shared that he didn’t pass universal pre-k just to create better education outcomes but to also address “longstanding racial inequities.”
To find out more about other candidate's positions on key work/family issues, a helpful snapshot was published in New America.
Immigration and Children
More than 900 children have been separated from their families at the border since June 2018 despite a court order for the Administration to slow-down the practice, according to court documents filed earlier this week by the American Civil Liberties Union. While Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenen claims that these separations were “rare” and made “only in the interest of the child,” court-filings show that children were separated from parents for reasons like a father having HIV, not changing a baby’s diaper quickly enough, incorrect accusations of not being a paternal father or a child being unable to answer border patrol’s questions due to a speech impediment, as reported by NPR. “DHS officials with no child welfare expertise are making split-second decisions, and these decisions have traumatic, lifelong consequences for the children and their families,” said Jennifer Nagda, policy director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights quoted in The Washington Post. Additional outlets reporting the findings include The Huffington Post, The Hill, and CNN.
|
|
|
Chocolate Milk: Local breastfeeding advocacy organization Breastfeed LA has teamed up with iDream for Racial Health Equality to host screenings of "Chocolate Milk: The Documentary" throughout Los Angeles County. The documentary is an exploration of the racial divide in breastfeeding told through the narratives of three African American women. Click here to find a screening near you and retweet the tweet above to spread the word!
|
|
|
Funding Source Briefing: Recently First 5 LA Fellow Melissa Franklin and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health's Health Program Analyst Helen O'Conner recently hosted a webinar for community members and organizations in LA County to learn about a new funding source by way of the State of California Department of Public Health's Perinatal Equity Initiative (PEI). The state will fund, through the Los Angeles County Department of Public health, two or more of the five interventions identified in the grant to reduce African American preterm birth. The webinar was an initial opportunity for community members, providers, and organizations who serve women and families to learn about the five interventions so that they can inform the selection of two strategies, allowing DPH to submit a community-informed collaborative application by early September. Click here or on the image above to view the webinar and here to take the follow-up survey.
|
|
August 3- August 29 -- Chocolate Milk: The Documentary Screening and Town Hall August 2019 hosted by by BreastfeedLA and iDREAM for Racial Health Equity, multiple locations. Free, click here to register.
August 26 -- 400 Years: Reflections on Lessons Learned & Imagining Our Futures, 8:00 a.m. – 6 p.m., The California Endowment 1000 N. Alameda St. Los Angeles, CA 90012. $75, click here to register.
September 18 -- Learners Today, Leaders Tomorrow 2019 Summit, 8:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m., Long Beach Marriott, 4700 Airport Plaza Drive Long Beach, CA 90815. Registration $100, click here to register.
|
|
ICYMI: In Case You Missed It, More Great Reads
|
|
|
|
