Presentations by Network Staff

LA Best Babies Network Presents at Conferences across the Country

March 6-10, 2010: The Network’s Director of Programs, Janice French, and Director of Policy, Tonya Gorham, spoke at the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs' (AMCHP) conference, in National Harbor, Maryland. The conference theme was“Moving Ahead Together: Celebrating the Legacy, Shaping the Future of Maternal and Child Health. French described the Network’s Healthy Births Care Quality Collaborative, attributing its success to the principles of a client-centered approach rooted in evidence-based best practices.

Tonya Gorham gave a presentation on a successful Worksite Wellness program conducted at the American Apparel garment factory in Los Angeles. The program, led by Worksite Wellness LA, was built around the Network’s How Healthy Are You? quiz pamphlet, which helps women focus on getting and staying healthy before and between pregnancies. The program supported the employees in taking charge of their own health and developing a healthy life plan, by having them record their nutritional intake, physical activity, and mental health status. The program proved very popular with employees, with almost 200 signing up, and a majority taking steps like eating more fruits and vegetables and increasing exercise—leading to the conclusion that women are receptive to health education in the workplace.

In her second presentation, Gorham focused on maternal depression, a core component of LA Best Babies Network’s policy agenda. She described how partnerships between providers, caregivers, and advocates can bring down barriers to maternal depression screening. Maternal depression is a widespread public health issue, affecting at least 15% of pregnant and postpartum women and as much as 56% in the low-income bracket, half of whom are never diagnosed nor treated.

March 15, 2010: Maternal depression was the focus of the Bright Beginnings conference, held in Los Angeles, at the California Endowment Center.. Presented by the Maternal and Child Health Program at U.C. Berkeley, this year’s conference examined key issues that included the impact of postpartum mood disorder on adolescents, the safety of antidepressants during pregnancy, and Chinese gynecological treatments for postpartum depression. Tonya Gorham spoke on the topic of leveraging scarce local resources to improve access to perinatal depression services. The day-long event was sponsored by the Los Angeles County Office of Public Health and the Perinatal Advisory Council: Leadership, Advocacy and Consultation.

At the Institute for Health Care Improvement’s three-day summit on improving patient care in Washington, D.C., the Network highlighted its efforts to advance the quality of prenatal services in Los Angeles County. Principal Investigator, Dr. Carolina Reyes and Director of Programs Janice French presented a poster that spelled out the aims and achievements of the Healthy Births Care Quality Collaborative. The poster depicted the Collaborative’s impressive results, which included diabetes screening rates that jumped from 56% to 87% over a 15 month period and depression screening rates that increased dramatically from 46% to 89%.

At the 2009 California REACH US Conference, Director of Programs, Janice French, CNM, MS and Family Engagement Program Director, Robin E. Johnson, MD, MPH, FACOG served, on a panel addressing infant mortality, along with Paula Binner, LCSW. Ms. French spoke on the topic of reducing health disparities through quality prenatal care, demonstrating how LA Best Babies Network's Care Quality Collaborative has made strides in this area. Dr. Johnson spoke on the subject of home visitation as an effective strategy for reducing perinatal health disparities.
September 24, 2009.

At the 2009 California REACH US Conference, Public Health Research Associate Sharl Talan, MPH, served on a panel entitled "Best Practices/Lessons Learned Community Engagement" presenting on the topic of "Impacting Pregnancy Outcomes through effective Collaboration," and how the Network's Best Babies Collaboratives work in this area. September 23, 2009.

Executive Director Lynn Yonekura, MD presented at the 23d Annual Postpartum Support International Conference, on the topic of "Building Capacity to Address Perinatal Depression," with Paul Binner, LCSW. August 6, 2009

Family Engagement Program Director, Robin E. Johnson, MD, MPH, FACOG, presented at the first plenary session of the 23d Annual Postpartum Support International Conference, on a panel entitled, "One Window, Different Views: The Obstetrician, Psychiatrist, Therapist and Community Support Networks: Integrating Roles and Goals," along with Rebecca Perlow, MD, Emily Dossett, MD, and Jill Weiss, MA, LCSW. August 6, 2009

Also at the 23d Annual Postpartum Support International Conference, Family Engagement Program Director, Robin E. Johnson, MD, MPH, FACOG aserved on a panel on the topic of "Screening for Perinatal Depression Through Home Visitation Programs," with Cindy Chow, PHN, MPH, BSN, August 6, 2009.

Executive Director Carolina Reyes, MD gave the plenary address at the First South Los Angeles Health and Human Rights Conference, at the California Science Center, June 5, 2009.

Executive Director Carolina Reyes, MD presented before the Alliance for a Better Community's "Buenos Principios: Latino Birth-to-Three Policy Roundtable," at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, April 28, 2009.

Executive Director Carolina Reyes, MD presented at the 2009 Family Dispute Resolution Statewide Educational Institute, an annual statewide conference bringing together Superior Court Family Court Services professionals, and sponsored by the Judicial Council of California, the policy arm of the California courts. Dr. Reyes spoke before California judges on the impact of breastfeeding on early childhood development, and its importance when making co-parenting decisions. April 24, 2009.

Executive Director Carolina Reyes, MD, spoke on “Addressing Health Disparities through Quality Improvement” at the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) on February 28, 2009.

Family Engagement Program Director Robin E. Johnson, MD, MPH, FACOG, introduced and led a discussion of the documentary Breaking the Bough: A Closer Look at the Contributing Factors to High Infant Mortality Rates in the African-American Community to First 5 LA staff as part of Black History Month on February 26, 2009.

Executive Director Carolina Reyes, MD discussed “Quality Improvement: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going” at the annual health symposium of the Community Clinic Association of L.A. County on January 29-30, 2009.

The Network promoted its activities via a booth at the 2009 March of Dimes Conference for Health Professionals on January 26-27, 2009.