Cultivating Vital Conditions For Perinatal Well-Being And A Sustained Commitment To Reproductive Justice.

Perinatal mental illness is a leading cause of death during pregnancy and the first postpartum year in the United States. Although better acute care services for mental health conditions are desperately needed, urgent services alone cannot create the conditions to thrive. Cultivating well-being requires a sustained commitment to reproductive justice, "the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.

Advancing Nutrition and Dietetics Research in Global Food and Nutrition Security: A Roundtable Meeting Report.

Food and nutrition security remains a relevant issue globally, impacting nutritional status and other health outcomes. This is further complicated by various environmental factors that impact stable access to, availability of, and utilization of nutritious foods. Nutrition and dietetics practitioners play an important role in the identification and treatment of food and nutrition security and are also well positioned to advance research that can support food and nutrition security solutions.

Examining the Role of Women, Infant, and Children in Black Women Breastfeeding Duration and Exclusivity: A Systematic Review.

African American women continue to experience low rates of breastfeeding initiation as well as low rates of exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months. Research has indicated that there are several social determinants that impact breastfeeding rates, but there is a dearth of literature that allows African American women to give voice to their experiences. In addition, research has shown women, infant, and children (WIC) participants to have lower breastfeeding rates than non-WIC eligible women.

Challenges and lessons learned birthing during the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review.

Background And Aims: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the healthcare system facilitated a change in policies to redress the consequences of increased demand and fear of disease transmission. Restrictive measures throughout the healthcare system limiting access to accompanying partners of birthing people in addition to fears of contracting COVID-19, an increasing number of birthing people chose to have an out-of-hospital birth. Out-of-hospital births are not prevalent in the United States.

Cultivating a Sense of Belonging in Allied Health Education: An Approach Based on Mindfulness Anti-Oppression Pedagogy.

To address accreditation standards and to meet a need due to a disparity in health care providers engaged in direct patient care, many institutions of higher education have focused on initiatives to increase the numbers of ethnic and racial minority populations. Despite these efforts, there remains a dearth of diversity in health care. For many underrepresented minority populations (URM), numerous barriers exist to becoming a health professional.

Addressing Black Infant Mortality Through Harnessing the Power of Community.

In Hamilton County, Ohio, the infant mortality rate is above the national average and the Black infant mortality rate is more than 3 times the white infant mortality rate. These racial disparities in infant mortality cannot be explained through other socio-economic characteristics like education, income, housing, or medical insurance. Research has shown that racism, not race itself, is the driving force behind the high disparity in infant mortality rates in Hamilton County and the nation as well.

Exploring the Breastfeeding Experiences of African American Mothers Through a Critical Race Theory Lens.

Data from the Ohio Department of Health for Hamilton County reveal that the rate of breastfeeding steadily increased for non-Hispanic white babies from 72% initiation in 2006 to 79.8% initiation in 2018. Over the same time period, the rate of breastfeeding initiation increased from 52% to 65.

African American Women and Obesity Through the Prism of Race.

Background: There are minimal studies focusing on African American women and obesity, and there are even fewer studies examining obesity through a critical race theoretical framework. African American obesity research has largely focused on individual and community interventions, which have not been sufficient to reverse the obesity epidemic.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between race and body mass index (BMI) for African American women.