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.
Best Practice
Healthy Babies Are Worth the Wait – Kentucky
Kentucky's preterm birth rate continues to be above the national average. This program allows local health departments to collaborate with local birthing hospitals or providers to address comprehensive care and modifiable risk factors.
Read MorePromising Practice
Starting Out Right: Positive Strategies to Guide Adolescents through Healthy Pregnancy and Childbirth
Starting Out Right is a pregnancy health education and supportive services program and curriculum developed to address the needs of pregnant teens and to improve pregnancy and birth outcomes for the adolescent and their baby.
Read MoreEmerging Practice
SISTERS UNITED: Promoting Healthy Habits, Protecting Our Babies
SISTERS UNITED is a culturally responsive, community-based initiative designed to increase public awareness about the burden of infant mortality, associated risk factors, and how to prevent these deaths.
Read MoreBest Practice
PATCH Teen Educator Program
The PATCH Teen Educator Program is a replicable, youth-driven intervention to improve the way adolescents receive, experience, and utilize health care. It strives to bring youth voice to the forefront of adolescent health care conversations while providing the knowledge, skills, and opportunities they need to be drivers of change in their community. This program replication package was created for those (e.g. community-based organizations, health care systems, public health agencies, and schools) who want to become community and replication partners by launching a PATCH Site in their own community.
Read MorePromising Practice
PATCH Teen Consultant Program
The Wisconsin PATCH Youth Advocacy Fellowship is a model that supports and engages young people, ages 12-21, to grow as leaders and young activists by making their voices heard in adolescent health conversations at community and state levels. They provide advice and input on goals, decisions, initiatives, and practices that impact the health of their generation.
Read MoreEmerging Practice
Improving Oral Health Outcomes for Pregnant Women and Infants by Educating Home Visitors
The Virginia Department of Health (VDH), Dental Health Program (DHP) developed a model that provides trainings and resources for home visitors (HVs), family support workers, family educators, and nurses to share with the families they serve.
Read MoreEmerging Practice
Mississippi Interpregnancy Care Project: The MIME and DIME Studies
The Interpregnancy Care Project of Mississippi investigated whether primary health care and social support following very low birthweight delivery improved subsequent child spacing and pregnancy outcomes among low income black women.
Read MoreEmerging Practice
Care Connection for Children
The Virginia Care Connection for Children (CCC) Program provides care coordination services for children with special health care needs who have a condition that is of a physical basis. Services are provided in partnership with major medical centers across the state. The program helps families attain and maintain a relationship with a medical home to include specialty provider care.
Read MoreEmerging Practice
NESST(R) Newborns Exposed to Substances: Support and Therapy
NESST(R) supports the health and well-being of parents and infants impacted by substance use disorder (SUD). This two-provider home- and community-based program provides dyadic parent-child therapy and peer recovery support in order to enhance parents’ emotional health and functioning, reduce stressors and barriers to success, and improve children’s developmental trajectories.
Read MoreBest Practice
KIDS Network Safe Sleep Instructor (SSI) Certification
The KIDS Network Safe Sleep Instructor (SSI) Certification trains health care professionals to deliver standardized safe infant sleep education and community outreach to parents/caregivers, child care providers, health care providers, and the broader community to reduce infant sleep-related death. This train-the-trainer model utilizes implementation strategies to provide the foundation for sustainability and expansion of the safe sleep campaign and creates the vehicle for delivery of the KIDS Network Safe Sleep Community Baby Showers.
Read MoreEmerging Practice
Minnesota Care Coordination Systems Assessment and Action Planning
Tool for conducting a systems assessment focused on identifying how care coordination is provided in the state and the needs of those providing coordination services.
Read MoreEmerging Practice
Communities Supporting Breastfeeding
The Communities Supporting Breastfeeding is a designation that recognizes breastfeeding utopias, meaning communities that provide multifaceted breastfeeding support across several sectors: businesses, employers, hospitals, child care providers, public spaces, and peer support.
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.