Oral

In the U.S. in the latter half of the first decade of the 21st century, the focus on enhancing the practice of health and human services based on evidence has become increasingly omnipresent. There is growing acknowledgement that to make progress in improving the health of the population, particularly to reduce intransient disparities between racial and ethnic groups, new approaches may be needed, whether this be the universal application of an intervention that is currently available but under-resourced, widespread endorsement and implementation of an intervention that is typically not thought of as a health intervention (e.g., social welfare, nutrition, or environmental strategies), or the development of new models for an ordinary/common intervention. As we seek a roadmap to guide our future public health actions, it is important to take stock of our current repertoire of intervention approaches and understand their value, to carefully examine what evaluations tell us, even when no or minimal effect is found, and to recognize that in our current body of evidence, hidden nuggets suggesting future directions may be revealed when the body of evidence is examined as a whole. In this spirit, this session is based on a forthcoming book of the same title to be published by Springer focused on the evidence base for reproductive and perinatal health public health practice. Information based on three chapters will be presented by chapter authors: infertility treatment, innovative approaches to prenatal care, and, family case-management, providing diverse and rich examples of the approach taken by the book.

Session Objectives: 1) To evaluate the evidence base for several reproductive and perinatal health interventions (infertility services and IVF, doulas, Centering Pregnancy, Prenatal Case Management). 2) To discuss the implications for maternal and child public health practice that result from the review of the evidence for several reproductive and perinatal health interventions. 3) To identify the ability of several maternal and child health interventions to contribute to a reduction of racial/ethnic disparities in reproductive and perinatal outcomes.