A free webinar looking at the link between breastfeeding and obesity is available to the community through the Breastfeeding Task Force of Miami-Dade, as part of the Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) Project.

The webinar will be June 27th from 3 to 4 pm and will feature Cathy Carothers, the co-director of Every Mother, Inc., a nonprofit organization providing counseling and lactation training for health professionals across the United States.

Participants will gain insight into the science linking breastfeeding and lower obesity rates. Research-driven principles behind interventions outlined in “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Guide to Breastfeeding Interventions” will be explored. Practical tips for implementing these strategies will be provided.

Registration is mandatory and can be completed here.

Photo courtesy of the Dream Foundation

Florida has a wide range of specialty license plates — but only one simultaneously honors  a civil rights leader while also providing funding for healthy pregnancies and babies.

The “Live the Dream” specialty plate became available in 2005 and costs $25, with proceeds going to the Dream Foundation. The Dream Foundation then distributes the money between the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, the Community Partnership for Homeless, and two maternal and child health organizations: the March of Dimes, Florida Chapter and the Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions.

Of all the proceeds, 25 percent goes to the March of Dimes for programs and services that improve the health of babies through the prevention of birth defects and infant mortality. Ten percent goes to the Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions, to decrease racial disparity in infant mortality and to increase healthy birth outcomes. Funding is used by local Healthy Start Coalitions — like the Northeast Florida coalition — to provide services and increase screening rates for high-risk pregnant women, infants and women of childbearing age.

The legislation creating the license plate was sponsored by then State Rep. Jennifer Carroll, who is now the Lieutenant Governor.

On the heel of a new research study  that shows babies born at their full gestational age are less likely to die than those born just two weeks earlier than their due date, the March of Dimes launched a national campaign on June 7 that encourages women to allow labor to begin on its own if their pregnancy is healthy.

The “Healthy Babies are Worth the Wait” campaign aims to dispel the myth that it is safe to schedule a delivery prior to 39 weeks. In the last few weeks of pregnancy, the baby’s brain nearly doubles in size and important lung and other organ development occurs.

But according to the March of Dimes, a December 2009 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology reported that only 25 percent of women know a full-term pregnancy should last at least 39 weeks.

The Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions received a grant from the March of Dimes to launch a statewide consumer-focused campaign around waiting the full 39 weeks and reducing scheduled inductions and elective c-sections. The Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition will coordinate the campaign.

The Healthy Start program providers, MomCare staff, Magnolia Project staff and Azalea Project staff participated in an annual regional training conducted by the Coalition on June 6th at Shands Jacksonville.

The topics covered during the day-long workshop were the National Crime Stop Program, Ages and Stages Questionnaire training, cultural diversity training and Healthy Start Risk Appropriate Care and Coding training. A total of 88 participants attended the workshop.

The purpose of this course is to prepare Healthy Start case managers to effectively deliver, document, assess and motivate clients in the context of the Healthy Start Standards and Guidelines, which are intended to guide the implementation of Healthy Start and the use of Healthy Start funds.

Course objectives are:

• Establish links between Healthy Start program goals with a case management model for the purpose of reducing infant mortality.
• To understand the importance of using the Ages & Stages Questionnaire to screen Healthy Start postnatal participants.
• To understand the impact and partnership of community involvement.
• To provide an overview of Healthy Start Risk Appropriate Care and Coding as it relates to the Healthy Start Standards and Guidelines

Magnolia Project staff attended the Healthy Start Interconception Care Learning Community (ICC-LC) – Cycle III held in Washington, D.C, May 19 & 20. The purpose of the ICC – LC is to improve the health and well-being of women by advancing the quality and effectiveness of the interconception care in Healthy Start. The ICC –LC focuses on improving the health high-risk women served by federal Healthy Start grantees through the implementation of evidence-based practices and innovative community-driven interventions, which are a hallmark of Healthy Start.

The Magnolia Project selected Body Mass Index (BMI) as their ICC-LC change project. The goal of the change project is to identify, adopt and use a consistent, evidence-based approach for informing, educating and counseling Magnolia participants about healthy weight during the interconception care period.

To date more than 600 BMI’s been collected. In addition, the staff collected and documented waist line measurements. A pre/post test was designed to assess participant’s understanding and knowledge of BMI. The BMI pre/post test will be administered to participants at initial clinic visit (BMI calculation) and will be followed up during annual check-up.

Project director Rhonda Johnson, health educator Alma Amoran and case manager Meloni McNealy attended the event.

The Magnolia Project is a federally-funded initiative of the Healthy Start Coalition that aims to improve the health and well-being of women of childbearing age in Jacksonville’s urban core. The U.S. Department of Health Resources & Services Administration has funded the project since 1999.