The Future of Maternal and Child Health

Abstract

Introduction The purpose of this commentary is to start a national conversation about the future of maternal and child health (MCH). In the coming decades, we will have unprecedented opportunities to improve MCH, but will also face unprecedented threats. Methods This paper examines emerging opportunities and threats to MCH, and discusses strategies for leading the future of MCH. Results Scientific advancements will continue to drive improvements in MCH, but to unleash its full potential for improving population health future MCH research must become more transdisciplinary, translational, and precise. Technological innovations could dramatically transform our work in MCH while big data could enhance predictive analytics and precision health; our challenge will be to assure equitable access. The greatest gains in MCH will continue to come from improving social conditions, which will require advancing MCH in all policies. Climate change, infectious outbreaks and antimicrobial resistance pose increasing threats to MCH, which can be averted by reducing global warming, implementing global early warning systems, and instituting responsible antimicrobial stewardship. The growing burden of chronic diseases in children and adults need to be addressed from an ecological and life course perspective. The water crisis in Flint shined a spotlight on the growing health threats from America's decaying infrastructure. Discussion We can lead the future of MCH by starting a national conversation, improving MCH research, and preparing future MCH workforce, but the future of MCH will depend on our effectiveness in bringing about social and political change in the coming decades.

The Online Ordering Behaviors among Participants in the Oklahoma Women, Infants, and Children Program: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

“…Although the WIC program is unique among developed countries and the WIC OO technology is still in the pilot-test phase, this innovation can still provide a good example for developing countries who are eager to adopt app-based technology to promote nutrition assistance to mothers and children [31][32][33].…”

Transdisciplinary Imagination: Addressing Equity and Mistreatment in Perinatal Care

“…A coordinated transdisciplinary approach to wicked problems in maternity care is rare. In 2019, Dr. Michael Lu predicted that the future of maternal child health would depend on our willingness to “work outside of our comfort zone, building collaborations across multiple sectors including education, housing, social services, economic and community development to address social determinants” (Lu, 2019 ). However, he notes that this future requires an intentional transdisciplinary process.…”

“…To address the expanding and intersecting wicked problems of inequity, racism, and quality gaps in childbearing care, we will need systems integration across multiple sectors—where community, education, and economic conditions are attended to throughout the life course, including and especially when families are forming. This integration will require the transition of the existing legislative, disciplinary, and service provision silos to an integrated system of distributed services, co-generation of knowledge across sectors, and a commitment to community-responsive models of care (Lu, 2019 ). It may be possible to eliminate disparities that determine patterns of mortality, morbidity, and suffering during times of intense disruption to already weakened health systems, if we embrace an ongoing transdisciplinary approach that keeps the person at the center of every conversation, and is not afraid to embrace the insights of a Hidden Third reality.…”

The Critical Value of Maternal and Child Health (MCH) to Graduate Training in Public Health: A Framework to Guide Education, Research and Practice

“…Integrating the life course perspective into all aspects of graduate training (education, research and evaluation, and practice) meets key CEPH competencies, including those focused on factors related to human health. As detailed in the Handbook of Life Course Health Development (2018), decades of research have underscored the essential importance of a life course approach to health as key to understanding phenomena, such as the role of the intrauterine environment in adult chronic disease, the interplay of biologic, social and environmental determinants of health and epigenetics, the role of government, policy and economic structures in access to services, and generations of inequities resulting from racism, heterosexism, and ableism (Bailey, Feldman, & Bassett, 2021 ; Boyce, Levitt, Martinez, McEwen, & Shonkoff, 2021 ; Braveman, 2014 ; Halfon et al, 2018 ; Halfon, Larson, Lu, Tullis, & Russ, 2014 ; Lu, 2019 ). In their seminal 2014 article, Lu and Halfon built on the long history of life course research to explain racial inequities in birth outcomes, highlighting its utility to the field of MCH (Lu, 2014 ).…”