Welcome to the MCH Innovations Database, is a searchable repository of “what’s working” in MCH (aka practice-based evidence) which includes effective practices and policies from the field that are positively impacting MCH populations. Practices are assessed along a continuum and receive a designation of Cutting-Edge, Emerging, Promising, or Best depending on their work’s demonstrated impact, among other criteria. Policies are assessed against a rubric and then given a designation of Evidence-Informed Policy Development, Policy Implementation, or Policy Evaluation.
For additional MCH specific evidence-based/informed strategies, check out the MCHbest Database which summarizes the science of what works from the peer-reviewed literature.
Policy Implementation
CenteringPregnancy – Medicaid Enhanced Payment for Group Prenatal Care
CenteringPregnancy - Medicaid Enhanced Payment for Group Prenatal Care is a policy focused on enhanced payment and alternative payment models for evidence-based group prenatal care. These are effective strategies for states to incentivize providers to utilize a model of care that reduces health disparities and increases birth outcomes while saving payers precious reinvestment dollars.
Read MorePolicy Development
Family Recovery Plans Implementation Task Force Act
This legislation creates a statewide, multidisciplinary task force to design a Family Recovery Plan (FRP) Model for substance-exposed infants and their families, as required by CAPTA-CARA federal law to develop recommendations using a public health approach for the implementation, tracking and enforcement of the FRPs, and ensure that the model focuses on the long-term needs and health outcomes of infants born with prenatal substance exposure and their caregivers.
Read MoreCutting-Edge Practice
Improve Perinatal Access Coordination and Treatment: Behavioral Health (IMPACT BH)
IMPACT BH helps communities strengthen and integrate their local perinatal behavioral health services through training, technical assistance and resources—to make sure birthing parents receive the best possible behavioral health care and support.
Read MorePromising Practice
Jenna’s Project – UNC Horizons
Jenna’s Project facilitates community-based care coordination and treatment resource provision for pregnant women re-entering the community after incarceration, with the goals of decreased rates of self-reported and verified fatal overdose and reincarceration among pregnant or postpartum women prior to incarceration and six months post-incarceration. Given that another important overdose triggering event may be a child’s removal from parental custody, care coordination also includes support for open Child Protective Service (CPS) cases.
Read MoreEmerging Practice
Maggie’s Place: New Beginnings for Homeless Pregnant Women
Maggie's Place provides safe housing and a nurturing community for homeless pregnant women, empowering them to thrive throughout their lifetime.
Read MoreCutting-Edge Practice
Center of Excellence for Perinatal Substance Use – Hospital Certification
The Center of Excellence for Perinatal Substance Use (COE) program empowers hospitals to provide effective, nonjudgmental care for birthing women and infants affected by substance use, improving outcomes through updated practices, system-wide changes, and resources for compassionate, stigma-free treatment.
Read MorePromising Practice
Families in Recovery
The Families in Recovery program is a community-based intervention that supports families and strengthens parenting skills during recovery from substance use disorder.
Read MoreBest Practice
BRIGHT Intervention (Building Resilience through Intervention: Growing Healthier Together)
BRIGHT is a dyadic attachment-focused therapeutic parenting intervention for caregivers with substance use disorders and their young children birth to age six.
Read MorePromising Practice
Team for Infants Exposed to Substance use (TIES) Program
The TIES program is a relationship-based home-visiting intervention that provides individualized, wraparound support to pregnant and parenting women affected by substance use, with the goal of promoting family stability, child development, and long-term well-being.
Read MoreCutting-Edge Practice
Children and Recovering Mothers (CHARM) Team
CHARM connects women who are expecting or have recently delivered babies and have a history of opioid use disorder with coordinated prenatal care and substance abuse treatment – to improve health for both mothers and babies.
Read MoreCutting-Edge Practice
Enhearten Recovery App
Enhearten is a mobile app that supports pregnant and postpartum women (PPW) with substance use disorder (SUD), focused especially on reducing internalized stigma. Enhearten is working to make recovery easier to access and more effective for PPW with SUD, as well as the broader community affected by substance use disorders.
Read MoreBest Practice
Minnesota Prison Doula Project
The Minnesota Prison Doula Project provides doula support for pregnant and postpartum women incarcerated in Minnesota’s correctional facilities, addressing gaps in care and improving maternal and infant health outcomes. The program offers emotional, physical, and informational assistance and supports bonding between incarcerated mothers and their newborns.
Read MoreThis project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number U01MC00001 Partnership for State Title V MCH Leadership Community Cooperative Agreement ($1,696,335). This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.