Pregnancy, Birth, and Infant Health

Reports:

Weight Gain During Pregnancy: Reexamining the Guidelines
2009
(collaborative project with the Food and Nutrition Board)

As women of childbearing age have become heavier, the trade-off between maternal and child health created by variation in gestational weight gain has become more difficult to reconcile. Weight Gain During Pregnancy responds to the need for a reexamination of the 1990 Institute of Medicine guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy. It builds on the conceptual framework that underscored the 1990 weight gain guidelines and addresses the need to update them through a comprehensive review of the literature and independent analyses of existing databases. The book explores relationships between weight gain during pregnancy and a variety of factors (e.g., the mother's weight and height before pregnancy) and places this in the context of the health of the infant and the mother, presenting specific, updated target ranges for weight gain during pregnancy and guidelines for proper measurement. New features of this book include a specific range of recommended gain for obese women.

Weight Gain During Pregnancy is intended to assist practitioners who care for women of childbearing age, policy makers, educators, researchers, and the pregnant women themselves to understand the role of gestational weight gain and to provide them with the tools needed to promote optimal pregnancy outcomes.

A Review of the HHS Family Planning Program: Mission, Management, and Measurement of Results
2009
(collaborative project with the Board on Health Sciences Policy)

Ample research shows that family planning contributes to the well-being of individuals, families, and broader society as well. Even so, many low-income individuals find it difficult to pay for these much-needed services, highlighting the critical role played by the Title X Family Planning Program, the nation’s only federal program exclusively devoted to providing family planning services. In its 2009 report A Review of the HHS Family Planning Program: Mission, Management, and Measurement of Results, the authoring committee acknowledges the program’s success in providing critical services to those who have the most difficulty obtaining them. However, the report outlines several aspects of the Title X program’s structure that need to be improved if the program is going to truly meet the needs of individuals and families and improve their overall reproductive health and well-being.

In its 2009 report A Review of the HHS Family Planning Program: Mission, Management, and Measurement of Results, the authoring committee acknowledges the program's success in providing critical services to those who have the most difficulty obtaining them. However, the report outlines several aspects of the Title X program's structure, including its goals, administration and clinic evaluations, that need to be improved if the program is going to truly meet the needs of individuals and families and improve their overall reproductive health and well-being.

Influence of Pregnancy Weight on Maternal and Child Health: Workshop Report
2007

The committee convened a workshop and prepared a summary of the workshop describing what is known about recent trends in maternal weight gain (prior to, during, and after pregnancy) and the impact of maternal weight during pregnancy on the health of mothers and their children (up to 12 months). 

Funds from the Maternal and Child Health Services Title V Block Grant are used by states and jurisdictions use to design and implement a wide range of maternal and child health programs that meet national and state needs. The workshop and workshop report informs the efforts of Title V Maternal and Child Health Programs to foster adherence to guidelines for recommended weight gains during pregnancy. 

The workshop addressed the following questions: