NHSA's mission is to be our nation's voice in providing leadership and advocacy for health equity services and interventions that improve birth outcomes and family wellbeing.

On Monday, a year will have passed since we lost a champion for women and children, a trailblazer in the public health field and most importantly a dear friend. Maribeth Badura was often known as the “matriarch” of Healthy Start. Holding the position as the Director of the Division of Healthy Start under the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Maribeth was dedicated to her work of ensuring communities had resources and services that were easily accessible and affordable.

She was passionate about helping women be healthy throughout their lives. Most of all she was committed to ensuring babies reached not just their first birthday but all of their birthdays. Although Maribeth passed away last October, her memory continues to live on in each of us who had the fortunate experience to work alongside of her. It is largely because of her that we celebrate 20 years of the federal Healthy Start initiative this year. Through our work in communities across the United States, we strive to keep her legacy at the forefront of our minds and in our hearts.

We honor her today for everything she did on behalf of our most vulnerable women and children. NHSA encourages you to share your favorite Maribeth story or memory here on our blog.

You can also honor Maribeth’s memory by contributing to the Maribeth Badura Memorial Fund. This fund will enable the Association to grant scholarships to individuals interested in pursuing the field of nursing, public health or similar. Recipients will be selected from Healthy Start communities.

Checks can be made payable to: The Maribeth Badura Memorial Fund and mailed to the NHSA office at 1411 K Street, NW, Suite 1350, Washington, DC 20005. If you would like to make a contribution via credit card, please visit our website, click the DONATE button and indicate MB Fund.

Since February, Home Visiting Programs have been the topic of conversations within the Obama Administration, the 2010 budgets and within the walls of our very own organizations. They are vital to the health and well-being of women and children, especially those living in low-income and very low-income communities. Late last week, the Guttmacher Institute released a statement about their new policy analysis that was published in their Summer 2009 issue of the Guttmacher Policy Review, indicating benefits of such programs on women and children.

Here is a snapshot of what they had to say on their website:

Home visiting programs that would be significantly expanded under a new initiative proposed by the Obama administration have demonstrated modest but important benefits for children and significant benefits for women, according to a new policy analysis published in the Summer 2009 issue of the Guttmacher Policy Review. Home visiting programs pair new families—particularly low-income, single-parent ones—with trained professionals who provide parenting information, resources and support throughout a child’s first few years.

“Home visiting programs have gained some real and well-deserved traction, especially with the Obama administration’s request for $8.6 billion over the next 10 years,” says Heather Boonstra, author of the policy analysis. “The current health care reform effort could well be the vehicle to secure funding for the program, as home visiting provisions have a good chance of being included if and when reform legislation is enacted.”

The rest can be accessed here, as well as link to the Policy Review where the article was published:

http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2009/09/02/index.html

The National Healthy Start Association is venturing out into the world of social media and has launched a new blog, “Healthy from the Start”.  We are very excited about the potential conversations we will have through the blog. Topics and news stories will focus on the health of women and children but also on the overall health of families in this country.

NHSA is committed to reducing  infant mortality and health disparities, specifically in minority communities. Our plan is to update you on how we are achieving this goal and how you can play a role in ensuring there are healthy women, healthy children, and healthy communities. Through the blog, we will also share what Healthy Start Projects are doing in communities around the country to improve birth outcomes, reduce pre-term births, increase access to prenatal care, and eliminate domestic violence. There are 102 Healthy Start projects in 38 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico that are on the frontlines in some of the poorest neighborhoods ensuring that women and children are healthy. The blog will help tell their stories.

We hope that you will visit this blog regularly to stay current on not just what Healthy Start is doing but also what our national partners and others are doing around the world to improve the health of women and children. From policy updates on home visitation to a story on reproductive health in Uganda, we will keep you informed on the happenings of women and children’s health globally. We will feature posts from our partners in the field of maternal and child health (MCH) and our friends in the community.

We are so thrilled about where this new avenue of communication will take us and that you will join us on this journey as we effect change for the health of women, children, and families. We know that with healthy families we will have healthy communities.