Colorado Parks & Wildlife Research Library

This MCH Action Guide was created in order to assist local MCH programs with developing their MCH plan. The "Healthy Baby" Action Guide is intended to help local health agencies and community partners develop evidence-based Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time-framed (SMART) goals and good objectives. This guide identifies strategies and action steps to reduce Colorado's Low Birth Weight (LBW) rate in your community.

An interactive platform for visualizing geographic disparities for selected social determinants of health, life expectancy estimates, and key health conditions/outcomes across Colorado. Specific areas covered include: population density, life expectancy, age, disability, education, employment, income/poverty, language, race/ethnicity, asthma, diabetes, suicide, low birth weight, drug overdose, low birth weight, and teen fertility.

High rates of low birth weight deliveries and infant mortality are persistent public health problems. There has been little improvement in rates of low birth weight and preterm births in the past 20 years. Equally disturbing is the persistent disparity in low-income and minority communities, where the rates of prematurity and low birth weight are twice the national average.

The Prenatal Plus program is a special program for pregnant women on Medicaid that provides case management, nutrition counseling, and psychosocial services to pregnant women who are at risk for negative maternal and infant health outcomes due to lifestyle, behavioral, and non-medical parts of a woman's life that could affect her pregnancy.