Parent and Children Healthy People

Reply to Student

You make an excellent point regarding the Healthy People 2030 objectives regarding sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and the need to educate parents about safe sleeping practices. Leveraging the point of contact patients have with the healthcare system during prenatal and postnatal care to improve the health of infants is so important. Even today, some parents may not be aware of the most recent evidence-based advice regarding safe sleeping. However, it is equally important to use the opportunity to improve maternal health.

There are still great disparities regarding maternal health in regards to race in the United States which suggests that African American women receive inadequate healthcare, and maternal health care in particular, versus white women. Rates of maternal mortality for African American women because of heart disease and blood pressure conditions such as preeclampsia and eclampsia are five times that of white women, for example (1). Healthy mothers are necessary to support healthy babies. Particularly for women with inadequate healthcare before becoming pregnant, prenatal care is a vital point of contact to establish the need for wellness promotion and regular health screening to underserved populations.

This is also true in regards to obesity prevention, a Healthy People objective you note. A 2021 study conducted by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases involving teaching responsive parenting, to positively promote healthy food habits, was found to have positive effects on children who had shown unhealthy degrees of weight gain in infancy, underlining how food habits can be instilled in children early on through behavioral modification (2). Again, this underlines the value of teaching health-promoting strategies to parents as a way to promote better health in younger generations. “Children’s children are the crown of old men, And the glory of children is their father” (Proverbs 17:6 NKJV).