Here comes August and the end of summer, but the fun isn't over. This month we celebrate breastfeeding with tips, resources, and support. This is also when families send their older children back to school and life gets a little busier. It also means the Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalition's Annual Meeting is growing near. Learn more about it and how to become a sponsor below.

Please welcome our new Community Liaison- Tiffany Davis to the Healthy Start Team!

Study: Florida ranks among worst states for women’s healthcare

"ORLANDO — Florida ranks the worst in the country for prenatal care, as many women miss medical visits in their first three months of pregnancy, according to a new report on women’s healthcare released last week.

About 32% of Florida women said they did not start prenatal care during their first trimester, while the national average was 23%, the report found. In Vermont, the top-ranked state, only 13% of women missed out on prenatal care during the early months of their pregnancies.

“Where you lives matters to your health and healthcare,” said Joseph Betancourt, president of The Commonwealth Fund, which produced the report.

“While some states undoubtedly are championing women’s continued access to vital health and reproductive services, many others are failing to ensure that women can get and afford the healthcare they need.”

The Commonwealth Fund, a healthcare advocacy foundation, found that in the 10 states where Medicaid has not been expanded — including Florida — women struggle to pay for medical visits and often skip appointments because of cost."

 Read the full article here.

Maternity care in rural areas is in crisis. Can more doulas help?

"When Bristeria Clark went into labor with her son in 2015, her contractions were steady at first. Then, they stalled. Her cervix stopped dilating.

After a few hours, doctors at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, Ga., prepped Clark for an emergency cesarean section.

It wasn't the vaginal birth that Clark had hoped for during her pregnancy.

This story was produced in partnership with KFF Health News.

"I was freaking out. That was my first child. Like, of course you don't plan that," she said. "I just remember the gas pulling up to my face, and I ended up going to sleep."

She remembered feeling a rush of relief when she woke to see that her baby boy was healthy.

Clark, a 33-year-old nursing student who also works full time in county government, had another C-section when her second child was born in 2020. This time, the cesarean was planned."

Read the full article here.

US infant mortality increased in 2022 for the first time in decades, CDC report show

"The infant mortality rate in the United States rose in 2022, the first jump in 20 years, according to data released Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 20,500 babies died in 2022 before the age of 1, final records show. Overall, there were 5.6 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births, a 3% increase from the year before

Infant mortality in the US has been generally trending down since at least 1995, when consistent tracking started, but rates are still much higher in the US than they are in many peer nations. There have been some small upticks over that time, but 2022 was the first time there was a statistically significant increase since 2002, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. Experts say that any increase is cause for concern.

“Infant health is one of the most important public health indicators that we have,” said Amanda Jean Stevenson, a demographer and assistant professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder, who was not involved with the new report but saw provisional data previously released by the CDC. “The fact that [infant mortality rates] are not continuing to decrease is a very big deal. Even flat infant mortality rates are not good. We need to see these numbers going down – and fast – because they are far too high.”

Read the full article here.