Publications by authors named "Cara Safon"

Doula services support maternal and child health, but few Medicaid programs reimburse for them. Through qualitative interviews with key policy informants ( = 20), this study explored facilitators and barriers to Medicaid reimbursement through perceptions of doula-related policies in 2 states: Oregon, where doula care is reimbursed, and Massachusetts, where reimbursement is pending. Five themes characterize the inclusion of doula services in Medicaid.

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Introduction: The impact of doula care on birth outcomes is well-established; however, doula support remains underutilized. Identifying barriers and facilitators to implementation is integral as the demand for doula care increases. The primary objective of this study was to examine doula program implementation across hospitals and payers at varying stages of implementation.

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Article Synopsis
  • * A scoping review of literature from 2012-2022 identified 53 relevant reports that mainly focus on promoting access to doula care and identifying barriers to its integration into Medicaid plans.
  • * A key takeaway for policymakers is the importance of collaborating with doulas and their advocates to develop fair and effective policies that support the doula profession.
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  • The study aimed to create and evaluate a framework for measuring the resources, policies, and practices of mammogram facilities in the Appalachian region, focusing on seven key dimensions of imaging quality.
  • Researchers surveyed 192 out of 377 imaging sites in Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, using statistical methods to analyze data on facility resources, community demographics, and mammogram screening rates.
  • Findings indicate that mammogram facilities in wealthier areas are typically better funded and part of larger health systems, while those in economically distressed regions rely more on outreach efforts to improve screening uptake.
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Objective: To understand the perspectives and perceived facilitators of and barriers to following safe infant sleeping practices among mothers with opioid use disorder (OUD).

Study Design: Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework, we conducted qualitative interviews with mothers with OUD regarding infant sleep practices. We created codes and generated themes, concluding data collection upon achieving thematic saturation.

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Background: Cigarette smoking is highly prevalent among mothers with opioid use disorder (OUD). Organizations such as the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology recommend cessation of cigarettes during the pre- and postnatal periods. Factors that inform decisions to continue or stop smoking cigarettes among pregnant and postpartum mothers with OUD are unclear.

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Factors that contribute to low initiation and continuation of breastfeeding among mothers with opioid use disorder (OUD) are poorly understood. To understand barriers and facilitators to breastfeeding initiation and continuation beyond the birth hospitalization for mothers with OUD. We conducted 23 in-depth, semistructured interviews with mothers with OUD who cared for their infants at home 1-7 months after birth.

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Media can be a powerful communication tool to promote breastfeeding, influence mothers' breastfeeding behaviour, create positive social norms and generate support among stakeholders and policymakers for breastfeeding. However, negative stories could deter women from starting or continuing to breastfeed. This study aimed to describe the breadth and focus of the media coverage of breastfeeding and the message frames that are found in three of the most widely read national newspapers and three popular women's magazines in Great Britain over a 12-month period, as part of the Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly in Great Britain (BBF-GB) study.

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We examined the extent to which social, maternal, and infant factors and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) domains-attitudes, perceived control, and subjective norms-mediate the relationship between maternal race and ethnicity and birth country, and breastfeeding continuation. A nationally representative cohort of 2,810 mothers with self-reported race, ethnicity, and birth country was used. Main outcomes included any and exclusive breastfeeding at 2-6 months of infant age.

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This study explores healthcare professionals' perspectives about the impact of behavioral health integration (BHI) on pediatric primary care delivery in community health centers (CHCs). A concurrent, qualitative-dominant mixed methods empirical study design was utilized, applying semi-structured interviews with healthcare professionals at the end of the implementation phase of a 3-year co-development, implementation, and evaluation process. Surveys were also administered at three time points.

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Communities and Hospitals Advancing Maternity Practices (CHAMPS) is a public health initiative, operating in Mississippi since 2014, to improve maternal and child health practices and reduce racial disparities in breastfeeding. Using the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance framework, this study assessed CHAMPS, which used a Quality Improvement intervention at hospitals, and engaged intensively with local community partners. The study team assessed outcomes through quantitative data (2014-2020) from national sources, Mississippi hospitals, community partners and CHAMPS programme records, and qualitative data from focus groups.

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Integrating pregnancy and HIV prevention services would make reproductive health care settings an optimal venue for the promotion and delivery of preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to cisgender women. However, these settings have been slow to adopt PrEP. Planned parenthood clinicians and leaders possess critical insight that can help accelerate PrEP implementation in reproductive health care settings and elements of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (i.

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We evaluated the acceptability and impact of a web-based PrEP educational video among women (n = 126) by comparing two Planned Parenthood centers: one assigned to a Web Video Condition and one to a Standard Condition. Most women reported the video helped them better understand what PrEP is (92%), how PrEP works (93%), and how to take PrEP (92%). One month post-intervention, more women in the Web Video Condition reported a high level of comfort discussing PrEP with a provider (82% vs.

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Disparities in U.S. breastfeeding rates persist among Black mothers according to birth country and between Black and White mothers, necessitating further investigation of modifiable mediating factors to inform interventions.

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Introduction: To explore associations between birth control sabotage, a form of reproductive coercion, and women's sexual risk among women attending family planning health centers. Data were collected from a 2017 cross-sectional online survey of 675 women who attended Connecticut Planned Parenthood centers. Participants reported birth control sabotage; sexual risk (i.

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Women with syndemic conditions, i.e., two or more co-occurring epidemics, are at elevated risk for HIV acquisition and are therefore prime candidates for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

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Little information exists on how to garner political commitment to strengthen large-scale breastfeeding policies and programmes by targeting key decision makers. The present study aims to map and describe the influence of stakeholders involved in breastfeeding policy and programming and identify opportunities to strengthen the breastfeeding-friendly environment in Mexico. A total of nine key informants from seventeen stakeholder organisations were selected based on their in-depth knowledge of the breastfeeding environment in Mexico and were individually interviewed using Net-Map methodology.

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Addressing women's low uptake of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) requires improved understanding of their product preferences. Such preferences should be contextualized according to other aspects of their reproductive health, including their contraception practices. We investigated women's preferences across 10 PrEP modalities currently available or under study and examined associations between PrEP modality preferences and contraception practices.

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Despite the well-established evidence that breastfeeding improves maternal and child health outcomes, global rates of exclusive breastfeeding remain low. Cost estimates can inform stakeholders about the financial resources needed to scale up interventions to ultimately improve breastfeeding outcomes in low-, middle- and high-income countries. To inform the development of comprehensive costing frameworks, this systematic review aimed to (1) identify costing studies for implementing or scaling-up breastfeeding interventions, (2) assess the quality of identified costing studies and (3) examine the availability of cost data to identify gaps that need to be addressed through future research.

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Background: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention clinical guidelines for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) are widely used to assess patients' PrEP eligibility. The guidelines include 2 versions of criteria-guidance summary criteria and recommended indications criteria-that diverge in a potentially critical way for heterosexually active women: Both require women's knowledge of their own risk behavior, but the recommended indications also require women's knowledge of their partners' HIV risk or recognition of a potentially asymptomatic sexually transmitted infection. This study examined women's PrEP eligibility according to these 2 different versions of criteria across risk and motivation categories.

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Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly (BBF) is an initiative designed to help countries assess their readiness to scale-up breastfeeding programs and develop key recommendations to strengthen their breastfeeding environment. In 2016, Ghana was one of two countries to first pilot BBF. In applying BBF, a committee of 15 Ghanaian nutrition, health, and breastfeeding experts implemented the BBF toolbox over 8 months.

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Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an effective biomedical HIV prevention method. PrEP uptake has been persistently low among US women, particularly Black women, who account for 61% of new HIV diagnoses among women. Further understanding of barriers to Black women accessing PrEP is needed.

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Background: The Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly (BBF) initiative includes a guide that helps countries worldwide assess their readiness to scale up national breastfeeding programs. Country committees of breastfeeding experts across government, academia, and civil society engage with BBF by applying the BBF toolbox that includes (1) the BBF Index (BBFI) to measure and score a country's breastfeeding environment, (2) case studies that illustrate how countries have created enabling environments for breastfeeding, and (3) a 5-meeting process, during which country committees develop policy recommendations intended to improve breastfeeding outcomes based on the BBFI scores.

Objective: This study seeks to understand how the application of the BBF toolbox impacted plans to improve the enabling environment for breastfeeding in Mexico.

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Background: Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake has lagged among US women. PrEP stigma is a recognized barrier to uptake among men who have sex with men but remains largely unexplored among women. This study examined the pervasiveness of PrEP stigma among US women and its implications for uptake.

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Article Synopsis
  • Breastfeeding provides significant health benefits for both infants and mothers, but women who undergo C-sections may be less likely to start and continue breastfeeding compared to those with vaginal deliveries.
  • A study conducted in León, Nicaragua, surveyed 250 mothers to explore the relationship between delivery methods and breastfeeding practices, revealing that the mode of delivery did not significantly affect early initiation or exclusive breastfeeding rates.
  • Key findings indicated that early breastfeeding initiation was hindered by prelacteal feeding, while mothers who perceived their babies as large at birth were less likely to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months, highlighting important risk factors in breastfeeding behaviors.
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