Healthy Mom, Healthy Family is a quality improvement project (QIP) designed to impact maternal and infant health and is sponsored by the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) and administered by the Ohio Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center (GRC), in partnership with The Ohio State University, Ohio Chapter-American Academy of Pediatrics (OhioAAP) and March of Dimes. Healthy Mom, Healthy Family is based on the national network model: Interventions to Minimize Preterm and Low Birth Weight through Continuous Improvement Techniques (IMPLICIT) Interconception Care (ICC). Using the IMPLICIT model as a foundation, Healthy Mom, Healthy Family is expressly modified to meet the priorities and needs of Ohio families.
By the time a woman begins prenatal care, it is often too late to modify many of the high-risk health behaviors associated with poor birth outcomes. Studies have shown that mothers regularly attend their child’s health care visits and are highly receptive to health advice at well-child visits. Through focusing on interconception health through screenings and interventions for birth mothers during well child visits 0-18 months, this QIP aims to address health behaviors and access to care that affect maternal and infant health in Ohio.
Risk factors among 2018 infant deaths in Ohio revealed that 42% of infants were conceived less than 18 months after a prior birth; 20% of mothers smoked during their first trimester of pregnancy; and 40% of mothers did not have first-trimester prenatal care. Among women with Medicaid, 26% and 36% reported pre-pregnancy depression and anxiety, respectively.
Healthy Mom, Healthy Family seeks to improve interconception care for women of reproductive age to reduce risk factors that might impact future pregnancies and long-term health of mothers in Ohio by September 2024. The interconception health of birth mothers of patients in participating pediatric sites is assessed through a series of interventions during well child visits 0-18 months. These interventions will engage mothers through a series of discussions with their child’s pediatrician on four high-risk behaviors during interconception: tobacco usage, multivitamin usage, depression and anxiety, and healthy birth spacing. Through these interventions, Healthy Mom, Healthy Family will provide mothers with a forum to discuss healthy behaviors, receive health screenings and education, as well as resources to connect with primary care providers or health specialists to seek appropriate health care.