Maternal Wellbeing

NWA 2022-2023 Research Priorities

NWA views the cycle of research, practice, and policy to be reciprocal and encourages collaboration between researchers and practitioners to conduct high-quality research that supports WIC and identifies innovative approaches […]

Association of Revised WIC Food Package with Perinatal and Birth Outcomes: A Quasi-Experimental Study

To determine the effect of the food changes made to the WIC package in 2009, they performed a quasi-experiment that showed that the new WIC food package was associated with […]

Maternal Health Visionary Spotlight: Dr. Joia Crear-Perry, National Birth Equity Collaborative founder and president, calls on us to value every woman to achieve maternal health equity

Dr. Joia Crear-Perry was led to a career fighting to eliminate racial disparities in maternal and infant health through her own experiences as a Black mother. Pregnant with her first […]

A Call to Action: Screening Fathers for Perinatal Depression

In early 2019, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a policy statement1 recognizing that “maternal depression affects the whole family” and urging pediatric providers to “incorporate recognition and management of […]

Relationships Between the Great Recession and Widening Maternal and Child Health Disparities: Findings from Washington and Florida

The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between the Great Recession in the United States and maternal and child health (MCH) disparities in prenatal care, birth weight, gestational […]

WIC Works: Addressing the Nutrition and Health Needs of Low-Income Families for 40 Years

Over four decades, researchers have investigated WIC’s effects on key measures of child health such as birth weight, infant mortality, diet quality and nutrient intake, initiation and duration of breastfeeding, […]

Preventing Maternal and Childhood Overweight and Obesity

Excessive weight gain in pregnancy not only increases health risks for the mother, but has been shown to increase the risks of obesity in children. Research indicates that a child […]

Do Vitamin and Mineral Supplements Belong in WIC?

WIC is the nation’s premier public health nutrition program serving low-income women, infants, and children. Along with nutrition education, the WIC food package helps meet the specific nutritional needs of […]

2020 WIC Policy Priorities

NWA’S 2020 WIC Policy Priorities: Fully fund WIC in FY 2020 and provide food-cost flexibility Invest in the Contingency Fund to ensure continued WIC operations Expand the WIC Breastfeeding Peer […]