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January is Birth Defects Prevention Month!
In the US 1 out of every 33 babies is born with a birth defect. While public health professionals often cite data around preterm birth, birth defects are a leading cause of infant death and disability. While not all birth defects are preventable, preconception health strategies are essential for reducing a woman's risk. Daily folic acid consumption, protection from zika virus, avoiding teratogenic medications, protecting from environmental exposures and controlling chronic diseases are some important interventions.
PCHHC is partnering with the March of Dimes, Mother to Baby, and CenteringHealth to i
ncrease awareness about birth defects among women, families & the general public. Each week is a different theme with a variety of activities - from practicing good hygiene, talking to health providers, getting vaccinated, and preventing insect bites.
On January 30th 2-3pm ET, PCHHC will host a #Prevent2Protect Twitter party with March of Dimes, Mother to Baby and CenteringHealth! We'll cover all the Birth Defects Prevention information and activities shared throughout the month.
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#ShowYourLoveToday Ambassador Feature
Judith Bernaldez, recent-grad at Hawaii Pacific University and intern at Health Mothers Healthy Babies, is a highly-engaged Show Your Love Ambassador and social media guru.
Judith posts her healthy journey using
#ShowYourLoveToday
from her fitness account (@JBB_Fitness). Follow along for some workout motivation and daily tips.
 Why she does it? "A healthy lifestyle initiates a great positive impact in a person's quality of life. All of my life, I have struggled with my weight and was not eating the healthiest. I decided that I wanted to transition to a healthy lifestyle both physically and mentally. I want to become a happier and healthier version of me. Some things that I have been doing to improve my health was going to the gym more to stay active. I also have been cooking at home more to control what is going into my meals that I eat. I try to include as much whole grain foods, lean meats, and a lot of fruits and vegetables. I also try to make sure I have time to relax."
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PCHHC Partner Spotlight
 Black Women's Health Imperative (BWHI) is the only national organization dedicated to improving the health and wellness of our nation's 21 million Black women and girls - physically, emotionally and financially.
BWHI invites you to become part of the sisterhood speaking out and standing up for reproductive justice (RJ) by joining us in the My Sisters Keeper Challenge.
Go to www.MSKChallenge.com and send a 1-2 minute video with your story about what RJ means to women, to our world, and to you personally, and you may win a $1,000 cash prize, as well as the chance to make your video into a short film that will be featured during a national film festival. Click here for more Challenge details.
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Featured Preconception Resource
Human Impact Partners: Working Across Government to Advance
Racial and Health Equity - a
4-part webinar series with national experts and local health departments to discuss their work to advance health equity.
Each webinar focuses on a set of strategic practices (from the recently released Health Equity Guide) that health departments can take to pursue a wall-to-wall transformation of how they work internally, with communities, and alongside other government agencies.
Register for the events and you will receive the slides and a recording of the webinar.
Upcoming webinars include:
January 9, 2018: Fostering Community Partnerships to Advance Health Equity
February 15, 2018: Transformative Change to Advance Health Equity
Organized by Human Impact Partners, these webinars are co-sponsored with the Government Alliance on Race and Equity, the National Collaborative for Health Equity, and NACCHO's Health Equity and Social Justice Committee. The webinar series is funded by The California Endowment.
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Featured Partner Campaign
W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) effort is hosting
the National Day of Racial Healing (#NDORH) to call for racial healing and take collective action to create a more just and equitable world.
#NDORH is Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018. This day immediately follows Martin Luther King, Jr., Day activities and acknowledges the deep racial divisions in our country that must be overcome and healed.
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Stay connected! Follow along and join the conversation:
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Submit an event, tool, research, program, campaign update for a spotlight or feature
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We want to showcase all that you are doing in your community or with your team to advance preconception health. Email
Suzannew@med.unc.edu
with something you'd like us to amplify in our newsletter, website & social media properties.
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Keep up with the Science!
Sign up for the
CDC's bi-weekly updates on preconception and interconception health by
emailing Cheryl Robbins
(ggf9@cdc.gov). A great resource for everything happening in the industry, across the country - and world!
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What a banner YEAR! Beyond the great new connections and opportunities, we've paved the way for the chance to INNOVATE and
build new strategies for improvin
g the health and well-being of young adults and
improve birth outcomes in our country
. Here's a look back at some of our highlights from the noise we made in 2017.
In January, we kicked off the year with our TEDxUNC Salon. We then took our videos to AMCHP in Kansas City in March to premier and discuss important #WhatifMCH topics, including leading for equity and reproductive justice. Missed the videos? No worries you can relive the inspiriting series here!
This summer, we launched our first healthy social media challenge with Latina Sana. The #MyHealthySummer Challenge reached over 950,000 people and had nearly 6,000 interactions between participants, encouraging each other. In 2017, w
e held two Tweet chats with the March of Dimes and other partners - both reaching over 3 million accounts on Twitter.
We saw a rise in our Show Your Love Ambassador program involvement, where the consumers lead the charge to promote preconception health messages online and in their communities. We now have 30+ regularly engaged young adults, speaking 5+ languages from 12+ US states!
PCHHC leaders presented at over 30 conferences across the country and globe! From Kansas City, Nashville, Grand Rapids, Raleigh, Washington, DC - all the way to Canada, Colombia, and the Netherlands! These opportunities helped us build new partnerships, gather new ideas and share the love!
Our PCHHC experts provided their expertise in numerous national and local news stories. We had a handful of journal submissions and publications.
Check
BeforeandBeyond.org/Press
to see the latest articles, journals and announcements.
JUMPING IN TO 2018
In December 2017, we launched a new three year project in partnership with HRSA Maternal Child Health Bureau, 4 states, national partners, experts and colleagues from our leadership team. Over the next three years we aim to improve women's health and reduce infant mortality with this new preconception CoIIN. Our goal is to develop, implement and disseminate a woman-centered, clinician-engaged, community-involved approach to the well woman visit to improve the preconception health status of women of reproductive age, particularly low-income women and women of color. We are SO excited by the energy and innovation this opportunity providers. Stay tuned for exciting work in 2018!
We can't wait to see where your collective leadership paired wit
h the voices of consumers, community and clinicians takes us!
Thank you for your partnership!
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Please Share
We hope that you will share this newsletter as your teams and partners grow. You can also sign up for the PCHHC newsletter as well.
For questions or submissions to our PCHHC Newsletter, email
pchhcnews@gmail.com
. PCHHC Initiative newsletters are archived
here
(BeforeandBeyond.org). Please help us grow our readership and share this widely!
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