Maternal & Child Health Indicators
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
- Emotional flourishing
- Health insurance coverage
- Infant mortality
- Mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral conditions
- 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. The 2023 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.