Starting Early

👋 Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work, and interesting takes on maternal health and early childhood development issues.

Women in the US face major economic, political, and social barriers — from wage inequity to corporate glass ceilings. One important remedy: Increase the number of women in decision-making governmental positions. From local school boards to Congress, women need greater say in shaping policies that support the health and wellbeing of everyone – especially children, women, and families.

Of course, race, socioeconomics, immigration status, political affiliation, and other factors influence decision making.

👋 Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work, and interesting takes on maternal health and early childhood development issues.

Having a new baby is a huge life transition. Every family needs support during this time. Home visiting is one of the best ways to do so, by pairing expectant and new parents with a designated support person – a nurse, social worker, or early childhood specialist — who lifts up the innate wisdom of each family and offers individualized, strengths-based support.

🎉 In the news: Last December, Congress reauthorized the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program and doubled its funding – gradually increasing it to $800 million.

👋 Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work, and interesting takes on maternal health and early childhood development issues.

The benefits of breastfeeding are well documented and recommendations are consistent: Feeding babies breastmilk confers unique health protections and other benefits that last a lifetime.

Breastfeeding promotes Early Relational Health, an important buffer against childhood adversity. During breastfeeding, caregivers and babies make eye contact, engage in skin-to-skin contact, and strengthen their bond.

Unfortunately, though overall US breastfeeding rates are up over the past 10 years, wide, costly disparities in breastfeeding initiation and duration persist.

👋 Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work, and interesting takes on maternal health and early childhood development issues.

Caregivers and children have always connected through music. Whether they realize it or not, when parents play music to children still in the womb or sing lullabies to comfort them as babies, they engage in practices central to Early Relational Health — positive child development in the context of nurturing and responsive caregiver-child relationships.

• Music offers nurturing, safe experiences that buffer the young from the impact of adverse childhood experiences and support healthy brain development that has lifetime benefits.

👋 Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work, and interesting takes on maternal health and early childhood development issues.

More than half of the nearly 2 million people incarcerated in the US are parents. With rising incarceration rates, more and more children must cope with the abrupt separation from and long-term absence of their parents.

Among advocates working to mitigate the impacts of parental incarceration is the guest editor for this issue of Starting Early, Ebony Underwood, founder and CEO of WE GOT US NOW.

👋 Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work, and interesting takes on maternal health and early childhood development issues.

An important part of the US child care system especially hard hit by the pandemic and too often overlooked in the effort to help families balance work and caregiving is family child care – also known as home-based care. Family child care – which usually takes place in providers’ homes – often costs less than care provided at freestanding centers. And it’s more likely to lack the financial and operational support needed to compete.

👋 Welcome back to Starting Early — here’s to a healthy 2023. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work, and interesting takes on maternal health and early childhood development issues.

The US child care system is messy, hard to navigate, and expensive. It’s also in crisis — facing a shrinking workforce, with many facilities on the brink of shutting down.

In the absence of adequate federal action, such innovative state-based solutions as New Mexico’s Early Childhood Education and Care Fund, Vermont’s Let Grow Kids, and New Jersey’s paid family leave are creating systems that support families’ needs.

👋 Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work, and interesting takes on maternal health and early childhood development issues.

Our final issue of 2022 honors 5 Burke Foundation Community Champions who exemplify the value of centering community to support the health and wellbeing of children and families. These are inspiring leaders who understand the importance of upstream investments in children’s earliest years and the healthy development of families and communities. ⭐

They are:

• Jesse Kohler, executive director of the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice
• Jaye Wilson, founding president and CEO of Melinated Moms
• Ceil Zalkind, president and CEO of Advocates for Children of New Jersey
• Twylla Dillion, executive director of HealthConnect One
• New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy

These Community Champions have challenged the status quo and achieved major changes on behalf of under resourced communities in New Jersey and across the US.

👋 Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work, and interesting takes on maternal health and early childhood development issues.

Everyone experiences stress in their life, but frequent, extended exposure to stress or trauma can be harmful — especially for children. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) — traumatic events that occur before age 18 — are associated with poor health and other lifelong problems ranging from heart disease and depression to unemployment. Though we can’t always prevent ACEs, there is a proven way to reduce the damage they cause and it doesn’t require a prescription: healthy, positive relationships.

👋 Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work, and interesting takes on maternal health and early childhood development issues.

The birth of a baby is an exciting time for families. It can also be stressful — as parents navigate health concerns, complex health systems, and advice from family, friends, and perinatal care providers. Community doulas can help calm things down through the tailored care they provide every step of the way.

But, like families welcoming a new addition, doulas need support too.

Working with community doulas over the past 4 years, we see their astonishing impact in the face of unsustainable wages, inadequate reimbursement, and tension from clinical providers.