Maternal and Child Health News
Coronavirus affects everyone: The Gillings School responds
March 16, 2020 As countries around the globe work to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 — which causes the illness COVID-19 — researchers and practitioners in every discipline at the Gillings School are turning their expertise into action to support the pandemic response.
New research could help caregivers identify exclusive breastfeeding challenges in the first week of life
March 11, 2020 While breastfeeding is recommended as the sole source of nutrition in the first six months of a baby's life, for some new moms, that is not always possible. Dr. Alison Stuebe and her research team have identified a set of clues that can help clinicians recognize in as early as the first week when feeding interventions and supplemental nutrition may be necessary.
Governments need rigorous and consistent standards to address environmental health for people who are displaced
March 6, 2020 Forcibly displaced people face a number of environmental health challenges that can vastly differ depending on the response by the countries that host them. New research from the Gillings School calls for a consistent and thorough set of standards that can address these challenges holistically.
Distress, trauma are common themes among mothers of very preterm and low birthweight babies, UNC study finds
February 10, 2020 Having a baby in the NICU can exacerbate postpartum distress related to birth trauma and disrupt lactation, according to new study that includes research from Dr. Aunchalee Palmquist.
Report offers promising approaches to make adolescent health programs more effective
January 25, 2020 The United States Department of Health and Human Services should focus funding on holistic, evidence-based, population-wide adolescent health programs that consider adolescent risk-taking as normative, according to a new report.
Sustainability is key for long-term success of Nigerian family planning initiatives
December 13, 2019 Family planning programs in Nigeria are successful in influencing the population to incorporate the practice of family planning and increase the use of contraception, but a plan to address the sustainability of these effects is necessary for long-term success, according to research from Dr. Ilene Speizer.
Anderson named Education Diversity Intern
November 26, 2019 Rakiah Anderson, a second-year Master of Public Health student at the Gillings School, has been awarded the American Evaluation Association’s Graduate Education Diversity Internship.
New grant will ‘re-engineer postnatal care’ to improve maternal and infant outcomes
October 17, 2019 Researchers at UNC, in collaboration with partners at North Carolina State University and The Ohio State University, have received a $2.5 million grant to improve health care services for new families after childbirth and during the transition home.
Saving mothers more effectively: With $13M, UNC faculty will build a national learning network to prevent deaths from pregnancy and childbirth
October 8, 2019 In the United States, mothers are dying. A recent America’s Health Rankings report listed the U.S. as having the highest maternal mortality rate in the world among developed countries. Now, with a total of $13 million in funding, three faculty members in the Gillings School will implement the Supporting Maternal Health Innovation Program.
Provider perspectives are vital to solving widespread absenteeism in Kenyan health care clinics
October 8, 2019 “Our recent and very preliminary data suggest that between 25 and 50 percent of public sector health care providers in western Kenya are absent at any given time,” says Dr. Katherine Tumlinson.
