We talk to Dr. George Saade, chair of TCHMB, about his career in maternal and infant health, the work of the Collaborative, and more. 

Maternal mortality continues to be the perinatal news topic that most occupies Texas media. Perhaps the most substantive piece on this topic, in recent months, was the Texas Tribune's "Dangerous Deliveries: Is Texas doing enough to stop moms from dying?" It begins with this heartbreaking opening:

James A. Cooley, a healthcare researcher and analyst in the Medical and Social Services division at the Health and Human Services Commission, died Nov. 11, 2017.

In 2015, over half of respondents (61.4%) from 14 states reported bed sharing with their infant, and 38.5% from 13 states and New York City reported using any soft bedding, most commonly bumper pads and thick blankets.

The authors found that compared with women who never used hormonal contraception, the overall relative risk of invasive breast cancer among women who were current or recent users of any hormonal contraception was 1.20 This and more advisories are available here.

The first lactation consultant Texas Children's Hospital ever hired and a driving force behind their successful in-house milk bank, Dr. Nancy Hurst continues to change the way Texas understands the importance of breastfeeding and human milk use for premature infants. 

The goal of the initiative, and its associated learning collaborative, is to increase the number of very low birth weight infants that will receive human milk, preferably their mother’s milk, as their primary source of nutrition to assist with their immune and gastrointestinal tract development. More specifically, this project is focused on helping participating hospitals identify and overcome barriers to establishing maternal milk supply and barriers to supporting breastfeeding in the NICU. Initiative to Improve Infant Nutrition and Care in NICUs