Pregnant woman sits in front of a laptop with her hand resting on her belly
Who Could Benefit?

Maternal & Child Health Indicators

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2023 Yearbook

Priority criteria provide one way to allocate home visiting services, but it’s important to consider other factors that impact potential beneficiaries’ daily lives. For families facing unexpected medical issues or unemployment, a home visitor can offer the lifeline they need to get back on their feet.

The following maternal and child health indicators compiled from national data sources can offer insight into family well-being and the potential need for services to promote healthy outcomes:

  • Breastfeeding
  • Child maltreatment
  • Delayed or no prenatal care
  • Emergency room visits
  • Fourth grade math and reading proficiency
  • Infant mortality
  • Preterm births
  • Tobacco use during pregnancy

Further, not all families have the same access to community supports due to ongoing cycles of disinvestment and discriminatory practices in communities of color. Such structural forces create barriers to services that drive outcome disparities across groups, particularly by race and ethnicity. For the first time, the 2021 Home Visiting Yearbook disaggregates maternal and child health indicator data from multiple national data sources by race and ethnicity at the state level to shine a light on families’ wide range of experiences.

Each indicator page includes—

  • Context for that indicator
  • A map displaying state averages for that indicator
  • A data table showing state and national averages, and data disaggregated by race and ethnicity
  • The indicator definition
  • Data source information

We hope these data help state leaders and service providers better understand the circumstances of local families and identify disparities in outcomes that warrant critical attention.

Interested in Seeing the Data?

Karen Howard, expert on child and family policy
Home visitors have long connected families to economic supports. Recently, they have helped parents learn about and apply for cash benefits under the expanded Child Tax Credit, which experts say could cut child poverty in half.
Karen Howard Independent Consultant

Photo courtesy of Karen Howard