Starting Early

👋 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.

👋 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.

Mothers are caregivers, protectors, and nurturers. As we celebrate Mother’s Day this Sunday, we should recognize mothers’ own needs for care, protection, and nurturing. With poor maternal health outcomes compared to other high-income countries, the United States has a lot of work to do to better support the health needs of moms – especially those in families that struggle to make ends meet and mothers of color.

In this issue, we spotlight Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and the opening of the new South Ward Wellness Center!

👋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.

Paid family leave enables parents time to develop the nurturing relationships that are crucial to their children’s healthy brain development. It works by providing wage replacement for people who take time away from work to bond with a newborn, newly adopted, or newly fostered child — or to care for a loved one who is ill or injured, or recover from a long-term personal health issue.

Unfortunately, unlike other countries around the world, the US has no national paid family leave policy.

👋 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.

We’ve covered topics ranging from Medicaid to maternal mortality, and this week, we’re very excited to cover a pivotal moment for our organization. Guided by compelling evidence, we at the Burke Foundation believe investing in the earliest years provides lifelong benefits for children and their families. Over the past 5 years, we’ve supported community-centered initiatives to bolster health and wellbeing during that period of life, with particular emphasis on communities of color — where glaring disparities threaten 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.

This week’s issue is the second of a two-part series discussing Medicaid. In our first issue of the series, we gave an overview of Medicaid and its contributions to the health and wellbeing of 78 million people in the US, which continues to experience very high health costs and, for too many people, disappointing results. Today, we delve into Medicaid innovations.

Jointly funded by the federal government and states, Medicaid must provide certain coverage to specific categories of people under federal law.

👋 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 is the first in a two-part series discussing Medicaid, the public health insurance program that provides much-needed coverage to about 78 million people in the US. Medicaid covers those with low-incomes and is often confused with Medicare, which covers people 65 and over regardless of income. Medicaid is the largest payer for health services in the nation. It makes a major contribution to health equity by addressing both individual health and the social factors that affect health.