More than 40 community-based prenatal and newborn home visitors participated in an interagency N-TOUCH training on May 10 that builds on the latest information about how best to prepare children to learn. Staff from Healthy Start, Nurse Family Partnership, Healthy Families and Early Head Start were in attendance.
N-TOUCH is an evidence-based approach to human potential designed to transfer knowledge of newborn development from published research findings to community-based parent educators to benefit newborns and their families. Participants received training and materials to enhance their work with families in transition to parenting to address the developmental trajectory that begins before birth.
Pathways critical to the development of language, vision, hearing and emotional response — the foundations of all future learning — reach their peak by the child’s first birthday, creating an important “4th trimester.”
The training is part of an N-TOUCH pilot project that was tied in with the release of the Jacksonville Community Council, Inc.’s (JCCI) Children 1-2-3: Early Learning for Future Success report. The project is funded by the Chartrand Foundation and coordinated by Baptist Health. The training was a partnership Baptist Health, the Jacksonville Children’s Commission, the Chartrand Foundation and the Healthy Start Coalition.
The infant mortality rate in Northeast Florida ticked up slightly in 2012 to 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births. In 2011, the region’s infant mortality rate was 6.5 deaths per 1,000, its lowest rate in 20 years.
A 30 percent increase in white infant mortality during the last year contributed to the higher rate. In 2011, white infant mortality in the region was 3.5 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to 4.6 deaths per 1,000 in 2012. The 2012 rates are more comparable to previous mortality trends in the region and mirror the state rate for this group.
Infant death rates for blacks and others improved between 2011 and 2012. The nonwhite infant mortality rate was 11.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2012, compared to 12.3 deaths per 1,000 in 2011. Three counties — Baker, Nassau and St. Johns— reported no black infant deaths in 2012.
Despite improvements in 2012, Baker County continued to have the highest infant death rate in the region (8.8 deaths per 1,000 live births), while St. Johns County posted the area’s lowest rate (1.6 deaths per 1,000 live births). Rates in the counties with small populations, like Baker and Nassau, tend to fluctuate more because the number of infant deaths is very low.
Florida’s infant mortality rate decreased again from 6.4 in 2011 to 6.0 in 2012 per 1,000 live births, marking a new low. Black infant mortality rates decreased from 12.0 in 2011 to 10.7 in 2012, an historic low. The white infant mortality rate decreased from 4.9 in 2010 to 4.6 in 2011 and remained at 4.6 in 2012.
National Day Pins from NEFLTeens Instagram
Teen Leaders from Northeast Florida are joining thousands of other youth from around the country to get out the word: Sex has consequences.
May 1 is the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, an annual day that kicks off the start of Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month. The purpose of the National Day is to focus the attention of teens on the importance of avoiding too-early pregnancy and parenthood through the interactive online National Day quiz. The Quiz is available all month long at StayTeen.org.
Participants in the 4Me Teen Health Project Teen Leadership Councils at nine different locations throughout the region will be wearing their National Day pins and promoting the National Day Quiz among their friends. In addition, each Council is developing a mini-project to implement in their community to educate their peers, friends and families on teen pregnancy during the month.
The National Day is organized by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen & Unplanned Pregnancy.
Find out more about what NEFL Teens are taking part in at the Coalition’s teen website.
Dig Into Reading, a Jacksonville Public Library summer reading program, encourages not just children to read over summer, but also for parents to read to their infants as well.
The program, set to run from June 11 to August 2 is free and open to newborns and children up to 12 years of age. Children who read 10 books over the course of the two summer months will receive a free book at the end of the program.
All library branch locations will be participating in Dig Into Reading. Registration for the program will be available on the Jacksonville Public Library website June 1. The event schedule for the program will be posted online May 15.
More than 40 community-based prenatal and newborn home visitors participated in an interagency N-TOUCH training on May 10 that builds on the latest information about how best to prepare children to learn. Staff from Healthy Start, Nurse Family Partnership, Healthy Families and Early Head Start were in attendance.
