The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children is a targeted public health nutrition program designed to support nutrition and health behaviors that reach low-income ...
Breastfeeding is considered the gold standard in postnatal care for both birthing persons and infants. Yet racial disparities in breastfeeding initiation and duration rates continue to persist. ...
ASTHO interviewed two state health agencies (SHAs), two nonprofit partners, and one university partner that were heavily invested in state early childhood development policy about how their programs ...
Though now an illegal practice, government contracts, policies, and practices have generally excluded women, and Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Still, practices and existing structures ...
Every August, national, state, and local breastfeeding stakeholders celebrate National Breastfeeding Month by engaging each other and the public in conversations about changes needed to build a ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented many challenges for breastfeeding families and state breastfeeding initiatives. This brief discusses these challenges and how states in ASTHO’s Breastfeeding ...
Breastfeeding and early child nutrition are crucial for promoting healthy early brain development. This infographic details how skin-to-skin breastfeeding and breast milk promote infant ...
Samuel Walker of Java Jam, a fatherhood initiative dedicated to amplifying the lived experiences of men experiencing the birthing and lactation journey alongside their partners.
Families who wish to breastfeed in the United States often face barriers in workplace and school settings. To address these disparities, federal, state, and territorial governments are adopting ...
This ASTHOBrief discusses how breastfeeding acts as a protective factor for maternal mental health, negative impacts of COVID-19 on breastfeeding and maternal mental health, state actions to improve ...
The Fostering Breastfeeding Equity Through Community Engagement webinar series emphasizes the importance of community engagement when developing policies.
Food insecurity is a pervasive barrier to the health and well-being of many differing vulnerable populations in the United States, including minority populations and rural communities.
USDA has proposed a final rule for long-term school nutrition standards and is seeking public input on the proposed changes through April 10, 2023.
Breastfeeding is a key protective factor against infant and toddler nutrition insecurity and is the ideal source of nutrition for most infants, since it adapts to each child’s unique nutritional ...
In this infographic, ASTHO highlights some of the biggest takeaways, successes, and data collected from the Breastfeeding Learning Community.
The National School Lunch Program, a federally-assisted meal program run by USDA, has provided millions of children with nutritionally balanced, low-cost or no-cost lunches each school day.
This infographic outlines recommendations for how PQCs can promote breastfeeding through quality improvement strategies, and includes examples of three state PQCs that have improved policies, ...
Surveilling and monitoring data is key to informing programmatic and policy work, documenting progress and impact, setting relevant adverse childhood experiences-related state priorities, and ...