Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the sudden unexplained death of a child of less than one year of age. Diagnosis requires that the death remain unexplained even after a thorough autopsy and detailed death scene investigation. SIDS usually occurs during sleep. Typically death occurs between the hours of midnight and 9:00 a.m. There is usually no noise or evidence of struggle. SIDS remains the leading cause of infant mortality in Western countries, contributing to half of all post-neonatal deaths.
Infant mortality is the death of young children under the age of 1. This death toll is measured by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the probability of deaths of children under one year of age per 1000 live births. The under-five mortality rate, which is referred to as the child mortality rate, is also an important statistic, considering the infant mortality rate focuses only on children under one year of age.
An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. Infant is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term baby. The terms may also be used to refer to juveniles of other organisms. A newborn is, in colloquial use, an infant who is only hours, days, or up to one month old. In medical contexts, a newborn or neonate is an infant in the first 28 days after birth; the term applies to premature, full term, and postmature infants.
Virginia Apgar was an American physician, obstetrical anesthesiologist and medical researcher, best known as the inventor of the Apgar Score, a way to quickly assess the health of a newborn child immediately after birth in order to combat infant mortality. In 1952, she developed the 10-point Apgar score to assist physicians and nurses in assessing the status of newborns. Given at one minute and five minutes after birth, the Apgar test measures a child's breathing, skin color, reflexes, motion, and heart rate. A friend said, "She probably did more than any other physician to bring the problem of birth defects out of back rooms." She was a leader in the fields of anesthesiology and teratology, and introduced obstetrical considerations to the established field of neonatology.
March of Dimes is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies. The organization was founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938, as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, to combat polio. The name "March of Dimes" was coined by Eddie Cantor. After funding Jonas Salk's polio vaccine, the organization expanded its focus to the prevention of birth defects and infant mortality. In 2005, as preterm birth emerged as the leading cause of death for children worldwide, research and prevention of premature birth became the organization's primary focus.
Helen Brooke Taussig was an American cardiologist, working in Baltimore and Boston, who founded the field of pediatric cardiology. She is credited with developing the concept for a procedure that would extend the lives of children born with Tetralogy of Fallot. This concept was applied in practice as a procedure known as the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt. The procedure was developed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas, who were Taussig's colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Sir Frederic Truby King, generally known as Truby King, was a New Zealand health reformer and Director of Child Welfare. He is best known as the founder of the Plunket Society.
EngenderHealth is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. active in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) operating in nearly 20 countries throughout Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
The Promotion of the Welfare and Hygiene of Maternity and Infancy Act, more commonly known as the Sheppard–Towner Act, was a 1921 U.S. Act of Congress that provided federal funding for maternity and childcare. It was sponsored by Senator Morris Sheppard (D) of Texas and Representative Horace Mann Towner (R) of Iowa and signed by President Warren G. Harding on November 23, 1921. It went out of effect in 1929.
Luther Emmett Holt was an American pediatrician and author, noted for writing The Care and Feeding of Children: A Catechism for the Use of Mothers and Children's Nurses in 1894.
Eugenics, the set of beliefs and practices which aims at improving the genetic quality of the human population, played a significant role in the history and culture of the United States from the late 19th century into the mid-20th century. The cause became increasingly promoted by intellectuals of the Progressive Era.
The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) was founded over 30 years ago by Phyllis Tilson Piotrow as a part the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's department of Health, Behavior, and Society and is located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States.
The swill milk scandal was a major adulterated food scandal in New York in the 1850s. The New York Times reported an estimate that in one year 8,000 infants died from swill milk.
Halliday Gibson Sutherland (1882–1960) was a Scottish physician, author, opponent of eugenics and the producer of Britain's first public health education cinema film in 1911.
This article summarizes healthcare in Texas. In 2017, the United Healthcare Foundation ranked Texas as the 34th healthiest state in the United States. Obesity, excessive drinking, maternal mortality, infant mortality, and vaccinations are among the major public health issues facing Texas.
Madge Thurlow Macklin was an American physician known for her work in the field of medical genetics, efforts to make genetics a part of medical curriculum, and participation in the eugenics movement.
Ada Estelle Schweitzer was an American public health advocate for women and infants in Indiana, an expert in infant health care, and a pioneer in public health in the early twentieth century. As the director of the Indiana State Board of Health's Division of Child and Infant Hygiene from 1919 to 1933, Schweitzer is best known for organizing and supervising Indiana's Better Baby contests at the Indiana State Fair from 1920 to 1932. Schweitzer's and her staff's educational outreach activities also helped change attitudes about child and maternal health. Statistics confirm that the state's infant mortality rate decreased during her years as a public health leader in Indiana to the fourth lowest in the United States, an accomplishment that was partly attributed to the efforts of her division. In addition to her work for Indiana's State Board of Health, Schweitzer was the author of numerous articles on children's health and was elected as president of the American Association of Women in Public Health in 1928.
Effie O'Neal Ellis was an American pediatrician, child medical care consultant, and an activist for infant health and maternal education. Ellis was the first African American woman to hold an executive position in the American Medical Association. In 1989, Ellis was inducted to the Chicago Women's Hall of Fame for her efforts in improving the lives of the black community and helping to lower infant mortality rates.
Susan Pardee Baker is a professor emeritus of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, was the first director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, and is an injury prevention expert. She is also known for developing Injury Severity Scores.
Harriet Louise Hargrave Hartley, also written as Harriett L. Hartley, was an American physician, public health official, and college professor. The Harriet L. Hartley Conservation Area in Maine occupies land she once owned, and is named for her.
