The State of WIC: Investing in the Next Generation

February 2, 2022

The second State of WIC report – supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation – highlights the experience of WIC providers and participants throughout 2021. Effective program reforms, including the WIC benefit bump and remote WIC services, have upended longstanding trends and leave WIC better positioned to deliver quality nutrition support. This report documents the strong and growing evidence base for WIC's nutrition intervention and lays out a blueprint for how WIC can build healthier food environments by investing in the next generation.

Maternal and Child Health

Winning New Rights for Lactating Workers: An Advocate’s Toolkit

November 30, 2021

Most lawmakers know very little about breastfeeding and lactation, much less about the needs of lactating workers. Your involvement in the advocacy process as a breastfeeding advocate or lactation expert is critical to educating lawmakers and the public about why legal rights for lactating workers are important – for maternal and child health, health equity, family economic security, and the fair treatment of women in the workplace. This toolkit is designed to support you in your advocacy journey.This toolkit shares information, model language, and tools to aid your fight for better protections in your state, no matter where you're starting. It is our hope that this toolkit will serve you as would a good nursing bra: by giving functional support, promoting access, and uplifting you in a way that makes your hard work a little easier.

Maternal and Child Health

Nurturing a Healthy Dyad: The Importance of Maternal and Infant Mental Health

October 5, 2021

Mental health affects how individuals understand, respond and interact with the world around them and evidence suggests that addressing it is key to a healthy mother-child relationship. Maternal mental health can impact how mothers engage with their children, which has a lasting and profound influence on a child's development and overall health (1). During pregnancy, maternal stress can decrease the placenta's capacity and ability to protect the baby from elevated stress hormones (1). Exposure to these elevated stress hormones in utero has the potential to cause issues throughout the lifecourse,including difficulties in learning and developing healthy relationships (2). Parents or caregivers who experience untreated depression, anxiety, and/or significant stress may be less likely to engage with their children in positive and interactive ways which is vital in promoting healthy brain development, behavioral functioning and ensuring protective relationships. The mental health of those caring for the youngest members of a family (parents and caregivers) needs to be a priority to ensure healthy families now and across the generations. In Michigan, on average, about 40,000 mothers per year are affected by perinatal anxiety and/or depression. Effective individualized tools and interventions that can help ensure parents and infants have a healthy start exist but most women with a perinatal mood disorder go untreated (17, 16). Combining interventions like early and frequent screening, relationships with trained professionals through prevention-based activities like home visiting, or interventions such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can provide mothers with tools to cope, and the therapy needed, to provide nurturing environments for their children. In this brief we explore measures to help address mental health for the mother or caregiver and infant dyad while highlighting some of the solutions currently in place that help mothers, infants and families start and stay on a healthy track.

Health Equity; Maternal and Child Health

Finance and Payment Innovation: Improving Equity in Perinatal Care and Maternal and Infant Outcomes

September 1, 2021

While the U.S. spends approximately $111 billion per year on perinatal (prenatal, birth and newborn) care, maternal and infant health outcomes are among the worst of any high-income nation and racial disparities continue. Efforts to improve outcomes generally focus on coverage, health care delivery systems and payments. Many innovations and ideas have emerged in recent years. This brief will help stakeholders concerned with maternal and infant health in Michigan understand the strengths and weaknesses of payment reforms for maternity or perinatal care, costs, and outcomes, including their impact on equity. The role of Medicaid and the beneficiaries it covers are emphasized, including Michigan data and examples from other states' efforts. This work is based on information from published studies, efforts of federal and state agencies, and national expert recommendations. Maternal Child Health (MCH) leaders inside and outside of government can use this information to support the design and development of any proposed perinatal payment reforms.

Health Equity; Maternal and Child Health

Diversifying the Healthcare Workforce: Implications for Birth Outcomes

August 1, 2021

A diverse maternal and child health workplace is one that has employees of different ages, genders, racial and ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and personality bringing a multitude of lived experiences to institutions and organizations. The benefits of having a diverse workforce are far-reaching and include improvements to innovation, increased productivity, increased team communication and engagement (1-3). Overall, the U.S. population continues to become more diverse, and, in some states, there is a majority-minority population. This occurs when 50% or more of the population is composed of racial and ethnic minorities (3). While the population has continued to diversify, the healthcare workforce has not kept pace. These continued changes in the racial and ethnic make-up of the general population makes it likely that health professionals will engage with patients that have different cultural backgrounds from their own. The lack of diversity in the workforce across all health professions has revealed a national public health issue that needs attention. Initiatives and sustainable strategies for all local, state and federal levels and within public and private sectors will help better ensure that the healthcare workforce meets the needs of the diverse patient population and reflects the racial and ethnic diversity across the nation and in Michigan.

Employment Equity; Health Equity; Maternal and Child Health

Reimagining Perinatal Care

March 1, 2021

Perinatal healthcare is the care a woman receives before, during and after delivery. Prenatal care is the widely used routine source of preventive care, pregnancy education, and support for expectant families in the United States, but the delivery of this care has remained largely unchanged since the 1930s. As a result, standard prenatal care delivery presents barriers to younger individuals, people of color, those living in poverty, individuals where English is their second language, and other marginalized groups (22). Currently, prenatal care focuses on medical interventions such as prenatal screening and managing chronic conditions, without consistent focus on mental health and social determinants of health. Women are generally recommended identical care regardless of risk or their individualized needs and preferences. This one size fits all model has failed to prevent adverse health outcomes such as preterm birth and maternal morbidity, particularly among racial-ethnic minority, low-income and rural women.

Health Equity; Maternal and Child Health

W.K. Kellogg Foundation December 2020 Grants

January 12, 2021

The list of W.K. Kellogg Foundation grants approved in December 2020.

Community Engagement; Early Childhood Education; Employment Equity; Food Systems; Health Equity; Impact Investing; Maternal and Child Health; Racial Equity and Healing

W.K. Kellogg Foundation November 2020 Grants

December 15, 2020

The list of W.K. Kellogg Foundation grants approved in November 2020.

Community Engagement; Early Childhood Education; Employment Equity; Food Systems; Health Equity; Leadership; Maternal and Child Health; Racial Equity and Healing

W.K. Kellogg Foundation October 2020 Grants

November 3, 2020

The list of W.K. Kellogg Foundation grants approved in October 2020.

Community Engagement; Early Childhood Education; Employment Equity; Food Systems; Health Equity; Leadership; Maternal and Child Health; Racial Equity and Healing

W.K. Kellogg Foundation September 2020 Grants

October 14, 2020

The list of W.K. Kellogg Foundation grants approved in September 2020.

Community Engagement; Early Childhood Education; Employment Equity; Health Equity; Leadership; Maternal and Child Health; Racial Equity and Healing

W.K. Kellogg Foundation August 2020 Grants

September 3, 2020

The list of W.K. Kellogg Foundation grants approved in August 2020.

Community Engagement; Early Childhood Education; Employment Equity; Food Systems; Health Equity; Impact Investing; Leadership; Maternal and Child Health; Racial Equity and Healing

Seeing with Fresh Eyes: Our DNA in Action, 2019 W.K. Kellogg Foundation Annual Report (An Kreyòl)

February 1, 2020

More than a dozen stories illustrate how grantees are advancing racial equity and racial healing, building trust through community engagement and demonstrating courageous leadership to widen equitable opportunities for children and their families.

Community Engagement; Early Childhood Education; Employment Equity; Food Systems; Health Equity; Impact Investing; Leadership; Maternal and Child Health; Racial Equity and Healing

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