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.

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.

👋 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. This issue wraps up our 3-part series on population health, where we looked at rural health and Latine maternal mental health — and today, will examine mental health among LGBTQ+ youth. We met interesting people, heard distressing stories about lack of care, dug into the data, and heard inspiring solutions. Youth mental health reached crisis levels during the pandemic, increasing stress, anxiety, and thoughts of suicide. The pandemic exposed the weaknesses of the US youth mental health system — especially for LGBTQ+ youth.

👋 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.

This week’s issue, the second in our 3-part series on population health, looks at maternal mental health among the Latine community.

• Latine is a widely used gender neutral term used to refer to people of Latin American descent.
• In 2003, the Latine/Hispanic population became the largest minority in the US. As the nation’s fastest-growing ethnic demographic, it grew by about 10 million people between the 2010 and 2020 censuses. 

👋 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.

This week’s issue launches a 3-part series on population health, beginning with rural health. Where we live, what we look like, the languages we speak, and other aspects of our identity have an impact on health and wellbeing. Identities can promote connections and bonds with others. Or they can be used as tools of division – feeding into a mentality of us versus them. Understanding and connecting with others – especially those whose identities we don’t share – can be life-changing.

👋 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.

Addressing climate change has never been more urgent. This summer, communities across the world experienced record-breaking heat waves, flooding, droughts, and other extreme conditions. In response, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that included $369 billion to fight climate change. Still, much more needs to be done — especially to support those most severely threatened.

Guest Editor Joe Waters agrees. At Capita, a nonpartisan think tank Joe co-founded and runs to support a future where all children and families flourish, he led the launch of the Early Years Climate Action Task Force.

👋 Welcome back to Starting Early. You received this issue of the Burke Foundation’s newsletter because of your interest in helping all children get the strong start they need to reach their full potential in life.

• We work “upstream”— like you — on maternal and infant health and early childhood development — tackling root causes to prevent issues from becoming problems; stopping problems before they become crises.
• 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 post-summer breakrelaunch of  Starting Early features an enlightening interview with midwife Jennie Joseph – one of TIME magazine’s 2022 Women of the Year.

👋 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.

In April, the Burke Foundation announced our new strategy – Building Strong Partnerships for Community and Care in the First 1,000 Days. It pairs primary prevention in the earliest years and wraparound services for caregivers with young children. Our First 1,000 Days partners devote their work to supporting healthier families, homes, and neighborhoods in New Jersey and beyond through four initiatives:

• Supporting families through universal home visits by a nurse
• Providing culturally-congruent care by community doulas
• Creating helpful peer relationships and a greater sense of community
• Adding childhood development specialists to pediatric care

Each of these efforts reflects an innovative approach to early childhood development.

👋 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.

As we celebrate Juneteenth this Sunday and the generations of Black Americans who fought for equality and civil rights, it’s important to recognize racism as a continued driver of racial disparities in health, economic wellbeing, and countless other aspects of life.

Black women in the US are 3 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than are white women, and American Indian and Alaskan Native women are twice as likely to die.

👋 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 pandemic’s disproportionately harmful impacts on communities of color are “the results of generations of policies and decisions communicating what and whom we value,” says Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, former Surgeon General of California and author of The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Trauma and Adversity.

Public policies influence the health, social-emotional, and financial wellbeing of children and their families. When they aren’t applied equitably, disparities result.

👋 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. Fear of getting sick, uncertainty about the future, and a polarized political system have contributed to an increasingly distressing mental health environment in recent years — especially for young people. 37.1% of high school students reported poor mental health during the pandemic, with 19.9% seriously considering and 9% attempting suicide. US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently issued an advisory on the youth mental health crisis following a joint declaration of a national state of emergency in child and adolescent mental health by 3 child health organizations.