Development and Unfolding of the Life Course Movement in the Field of Maternal and Child Health: An Oral History.

Introduction: A life course perspective in maternal, child, and family health allows for integrated exploration of outcomes, incorporating multifactorial determinants of health to interrogate sources of inequity and identify opportunities for intervention. This article explores the historical development, integration, and implications of the contemporary life course perspective in the field of maternal and child health (MCH), and particularly the people and events which institutionalized the framework as central to national and local MCH practice and research over the last decades.

Methods: Drawing on an oral history approach, key leaders of the life course movement in MCH were interviewed.

Frequency of Prenatal Care Visits: A Core Outcome Set for Prenatal Care Schedules.

The aim of this study is to develop a core outcome set for the frequency and modality of prenatal care visits. A consensus development study was conducted in the United States with participants, including 31 health care professionals, 12 public policy members or public health payers, and 18 public members, representing 24 states. A modified Delphi method and modified nominal group technique were utilized.

Preconception health indicators among adult US men: Race/ethnicity variations and temporal trends.

Background: Preconception health is important for men as it is for women. However, optimizing preconception health is understudied among men.

Objectives: To examine the time trends and temporal shifts in preconception health risk indicators among 20-44-year-old adult US men in need of preconception care and their racial/ethnic variations.

Expectant fathers' health behaviors, infant care intentions, and social-emotional wellbeing in the perinatal period: A latent class analysis and comparison to mothers.

While parental behaviors during the 'first thousand days' are critical for child health, little is known about fathers during this time. We examined prenatal patterns of health behaviors, social-emotional wellbeing, and infant care intentions among expectant fathers, both overall and compared to expectant mothers. Among 227 mother-father dyads enrolling in a randomized controlled trial of a perinatal obesity prevention program in Boston, Massachusetts (July 2020-July 2022), participants independently completed baseline surveys addressing (1) health behaviors, (2) social emotional wellbeing, and (3) infant care intentions.

Activating Life Course Theory through a Whole System Prevention Framework to Address the Wicked Problem of Maternal and Infant Morbidity and Mortality.

Background: Racial/ethnic disparities in maternal and infant morbidity and mortality (MIM&M) is a wicked problem that is reinforced and perpetuated by our system[s] of care. Life Course Theory (LCT) helps to explain drivers of health disparities, but its application is challenged. An upstream approach that promotes systemic change requires the implementation of an expanded prevention framework that includes primordial and quaternary prevention.