Blog

Join Wrestling Ghosts Director, Ana Joanes, and the Transform Trauma with ACEs Science Film Festival co0sponsors for a discussion about Parenting with ACEs on Tuesday, June 15, 2021, at 7 p.m. EST. Please go here to pre-register for the Zoom follow-up film discussion. Here's one of my favorite scenes from Wrestling Ghosts where the author of Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology and How You Can Heal, Donna Jackson Nakazawa, explains how and why early trauma impacts...

Wrestling Ghosts is the fourth and final film in the Transform Trauma with ACEs Science Film Festival series and is available to all PACEs Connection member this weekend. To watch any time from Friday, June 11th through Sunday, June 13th, 2021: Join the Transform Trauma with ACEs Science Film Festival interest-based community on PACEsConnection Go to this blog post to find the link and the password to stream Wrestling Ghosts. There will be a follow-up discussion on June 15, 2021 at 7 p.m.

New Child Trends research uses data from Zero to Three’s State of Babies Yearbook 2021 to examine disparities in maternal and child health, and discusses why these disparities exist. The researchers also highlight strategies that policymakers and practitioners can use to promote racial and ethnic equity to improve maternal and child health. For example, paid family leave is tied to lower rates of infant mortality and maternal depression and increased rates of breastfeeding and infant...

Adverse babyhood experiences (ABEs) are a new construct derived from large bodies of evidence that identify a different group of risk factors from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). ABEs occur before a child’s 3rd birthday and influence infant as well as maternal morbidity and mortality. ABEs are also risk factors for chronic illnesses and other chronic conditions in the child , symptoms such as postpartum depression and PTSD in parents and offer opportunities for prevention and repair.

By Healio Primary Care, Healio News, May 13, 2021 National Women’s Health Week is observed each year, starting on Mother’s Day, to encourage women and girls to take care of their physical and mental health. The observance, which runs from May 9 through May 15 this year, is led by the HHS’ Office on Women’s Health. The CDC and HHS shared steps that women and girls can take to improve their health, including: attending regular health screenings and exams; exercising and maintaining a balanced...

From A Better Balance, May 2021 Every pregnant worker deserves the opportunity to work to support her family without risking the health of her pregnancy. Yet pregnant workers, especially those in low-wage and physically demanding jobs, are routinely forced to choose between their health and a paycheck. We have helped pregnant women secure and enforce a clear right to reasonable workplace accommodations–the same right afforded to workers with disabilities under federal law. We are pushing to...

Last month’s CDC declaration that Racism is a public health crisis was long overdue. Yet, vital health and mental health disparities for women of color rage on amid this latest societal call to arms. Too many women of color, their families, and friends lay victim to gaping wounds, residual scars, and profound trauma from egregious maternal health experiences. Current facts speak volumes. The U.S. has the highest rate of maternal mortality among developed nations, rising steadily the past 40...

The National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Newsletter highlighted how COVID-19 has affected maternal health: Maternal Health and COVID-19 The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating concerns about maternal health in the United States, which has the highest maternal mortality rate of industrialized countries and is the only nation where the rate is rising . New studies highlight the pandemic’s impact on the physical and mental health of pregnant individuals. Black Maternal Mortality...

Maternal Mental Health: Addressing the Impact of ACEs, Toxic Stress and Intergenerational Trauma (TWO DAY TRAINING) WEDNESDAY, MAY 19th & THURSDAY, MAY 20th 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM __________ PLEASE NOTE: This training was created with providers in mind BUT anyone interested in maternal mental health will benefit from the training. *These training activities are available at no cost to participants thanks to a grant through ACEs Aware* SIGN UP TODAY...

By Heather Tirado Gilligan, California Health Care Foundation, April 26, 2021 Despite an induced labor necessitated by the potential danger of preeclampsia, Morine Cebert Gators had a beautiful birth experience. Cebert Gators, who is Black, searched diligently for a Black ob/gyn provider when she moved from North Carolina to Knoxville, Tennessee. She was mid-pregnancy, had recently finished her PhD in nursing, and was having no luck finding a doctor who looked like her. Googling and joining...

It’s been all over the news for months: Black women in the United States are dying from complications during their pregnancies or in childbirth at alarming rates, and those deaths are preventable. Less well explored is how systemic racism and historical trauma have been at the core of what’s driven up these rates over several decades. A March 20 conference entitled The Impact of ACEs on Black Maternal Health took an in-depth look into why Black maternal mortality and complications during...

By Jeroslyn Johnson, Black Enterprise, April 21 2021 With Black women more likely to die while giving birth in a hospital than women of other races, studies show more Black women have resorted to using doulas to aid in delivering their babies. In an effort to raise awareness on Black maternal mortality rates, President Biden proclaimed the week of April 11 through 17 as “Black Maternal Health Week,” 11 Alive reported. “In the United States of America, a person’s race should never determine...