Earlier this month I highlighted Folic Acid Awareness Week and PowerMeA2Z as part of National Birth Defects Prevention Month. I also want to recognize Governor Doug Ducey's proclamation declaring January 2016 as Birth Defects Prevention Month in Arizona. There are approximately 700 serious birth defects reported each year in Arizona, which are tracked by the [...]
Our employees wore green and jeans this week to raise awareness of folic acid and its benefits before and during pregnancy. January is Birth Defects Prevention Month, and January 10 through 16 is Folic Acid Awareness Week, which are great opportunities to highlight a simple way that women can help prevent birth defects. A daily multivitamin [...]
Our Licensing team promotes and protects public health and safety by addressing quality of care issues. Last week we hosted a forum for our licensed midwives to learn more about our programs and resources to bring them up to speed on our newest initiatives related to maternal and child health so they'll have the latest tools [...]
Every so often- you run into a resource guide that stands above the rest. I discovered one of those awhile back called the Guide to Community Preventive Services – and it’s a free resource to help you choose programs and policies to improve health and prevent disease in communities. The easy-to-read resource guide answers questions [...]
Minority populations often have poorer health outcomes than non-minority populations… but our new Power Me A2Z is doing something to change that. Power Me A2Z empowers women to take steps to promote good health for their families and their future children. It offers women a free 90-day supply of vitamins with folic acid and tools to help [...]
Taking a daily multivitamin can save babies lives by preventing birth defects. Folic acid is a B vitamin can prevent up to 70% of neural tube defects (including spina bifida and anencephaly). An average of 52 babies are born with neural tube defects in Arizona each year. The easiest way for women of childbearing age to get [...]
Every so often- you run into a resource guide that stands above the rest. I discovered one of those a couple of weeks ago when I was at a conference with the people in my job from around the country. It’s called the Guide to Community Preventive Services – and it’s a free resource to [...]
Being born too soon is the number one killer of infants in Arizona and in the nation (birth defects is a close second). Death rates from prematurity are declining but babies born too soon (before 37 weeks) often face medical, developmental and social challenges as they get older. More than 8,000 babies in Arizona were born too soon [...]
Please join us in encouraging pregnant women and new moms to sign up for Text4baby. Text4baby is a program of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition that provides pregnant women and new moms with information to help them give their babies the best possible start in life. Text4baby is the country’s first free, health education program [...]
Did you know that Arizona achieved an historic low Infant Mortality Rate (5.9 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births) in 2009? Infant mortality has long been a public health barometer to assess the general health of a community because good birth outcomes require a host of things to go right. There are many risk [...]
