Healthy Birth Day, a local nonprofit with a Count the Kicks public health campaign is holding a launch party for its new mobile Count The Kicks App. The party will begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates, 100 Locust St.
Healthy Birth Day was founded by five Central Iowa women, including state senator Janet Petersen, after each of them lost daughters to stillbirth or infant death in 2003. In addition to getting Iowa’s Stillbirth Registry law enacted and creating a parent-to-parent network for families immediately following the loss of their babies, Healthy Birth Day – which is almost completely operated by volunteers – also launched Count the Kicks. The campaign encourages women to monitor their baby’s movements in the third trimester of pregnancy. Founders modeled Count the Kicks on a campaign in Norway that reduced stillbirths. In Iowa, 234 fetal deaths were recorded in 2006. As of 2012, that number dropped to 174.
Find out more: Healthy Birth Day
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Business leaders from 35 major firms demonstrated their support of federal early childhood investments by signing a statement published in POLITICO (Sept. 17). Signatories represent firms across key economic sectors, including Procter & Gamble, Macy’s, PNC, Ecolab, UPS, American Electric Power, and Capital One. The statement says early childhood is critical to developing the workforce the nation requires to remain competitive in the global economy, stresses this is a nonpartisan issue, and calls on all parties in Congress to come together to take action. Click here to view the statement.
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Creating awareness of children of the incarcerated, the exhibit “Confliction” by local photographer Ben Easter features portraits of Iowa children whose parents are incarcerated. The photos and videos arose from a collaboration with Jolene Pfaff and Joy DeSomber who compiled stories written by the children for the book “What Did I do?” The exhibit is open Saturday, September 14th, and Sunday, September 15th, in the old Polk County Jail (110 6th Ave., Des Moines). The exhibit travels to Paris next month. Click here for exhibit details.
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The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) has released a new report, Better for Babies: A Study of State Infant and Toddler ChildCare Policies, presenting data from a recent state survey of child care subsidy, licensing, and quality enhancement policies. It provides a national picture of infant-toddler child care and shows where state policy stands in relation to a set of key research-based policies on child care subsidy, licensing and quality improvement that support children’s healthy development.
CLASP is a national non-profit public policy organization that develops and advocates for federal, state and local policies to strengthen families and create pathways to education and work.
You can learn more about advocacy for strengthening children, youth and families on the CLASP web site.
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