Hello and Welcome to the Maternal and Child Health Blog! Here, students share information quarterly aimed at providing our community with updates about current research, workshops, news, and other topics related to maternal and child health.
Editors of the blog are Richard Tirado, an undergraduate MCH Pipeline student and Delia Giselle Melendrez Gomez a second-year MPH student in the Community Health Sciences department at FSPH.
If you would like to submit a blog post, please email ucla.mchgroup@gmail.com with subject line ‘MCH Newsletter Blog Post Submission’.
Student Internship Reflection: MCH Lactation Social Media Internship
October 3, 2022
This quarter’s Blog Post is on Richelle Kingi’s Summer 2022 Social Media Internship with the UCLA Maternal and Child Health Program in collaboration with CDU BMHCE, UCLA, Hood Medicine, and the MLK Outpatient Lactation Clinic. Her focus was creating lactation specific content to promote long-term improvements in the health of Black babies well into adulthood.
January 20, 2022
Jordyn Brooks reflects on her summer internship with MLK Hospital Lactation Project – an organization that brings accessible breastfeeding education and assistance to the community of South Los Angeles. Through a needs assessment analysis, Jordyn and the team produced an asset map detailing the existing lactation resources available to new moms, dads, and their families.
January 20, 2022
This quarter’s Blog Post is on student Ada Chung’s project, NeuroConnect, funded by the Donald A. Strauss Foundation, offers a way for neurodivergent students and neurodivergent professionals to be matched online. Ada’s goal is to address’s the unemployment amongst neurodivergent individuals. In her blog post, she details the project and provides information on how you can support the project.
October 6, 2021
This quarter’s Blog Post is on a pilot project called School Street by Yanel Saenz, as part of her MPH field studies internship with Los Angeles Walks. School Street closes down the street adjacent to a school’s entrance and converts it into a pedestrian and bicycle only zone with fun programming for children and families. The goal of the project is to provide safer routes to school for students, reduce congestion and air pollution from idling cars during drop-off and pick-up times, provide ample space for social distancing, and create a community-convening space.
July 1, 2021
This summer’s Blog Post is on maternal postpartum depression by Bri-Ann Hernandez. Maternal postpartum depression (PPD) is one of the most common complications associated with pregnancy. As a result of recently established hospital policies that separate newborns from mothers with confirmed COVID-19, partners and support persons such as doulas are barred from attending deliveries due to fear of viral exposure. This isolation and absence of a ‘birth advocate’ can lead to birth trauma.
April 6, 2021
This quarter’s MCH-Related Blog Post is on the Diversity Pipeline Programs Community-Based Training & Practice Meeting by Lizzet Lopez and Nancy Le. “The Diversity Pipeline Programs under the HRSA Health Workforce hosted a virtual symposium to bring members of pipeline programs from all over the country to exhibit a research poster of their interest. It was a three-day event where attendees could interact through presentations and interactive workshops to learn from each other and address financial, cultural, and educational barriers affecting students from disadvantaged backgrounds.”