Community Healthy Baby Forum: Intervention Programs
The WHBC held a Community Healthy Baby Forum on Friday, September 30th, 2016 at City Hall during which several different Maternal/Child Health intervention programs were proposed for WHBC to focus efforts on during the coming year, with a particular focus on Worcester’s Hispanic/Latina population. The most popular of these, by a vote taken during the event, were the Baby Box project, Centering Pregnancy, and an outreach project to local churches/salons/laundromats.
The Worcester Healthy Baby Collaborative and Worcester Division of Public Health are currently working to bring a universal Baby Box distribution project to the City of Worcester. The Baby Box concept is based off of a long-running tradition in Finland of providing a box of supplies to the parents of newborn infants for their use in the care of their new child. The box itself is also unique in that it is padded on the bottom and can be used as a safe sleep space for an infant, similar to a bassinette. A Los Angeles-based company, the Baby Box Co., has brought this concept to the United States and, in partnership with the Bezos Family Foundation, works to provide boxes for all newborn infants born in several communities nationwide. The WHBC and WDPH are currently working with the Baby Box Co. to lay the groundwork necessary for Worcester to become the next universal Baby Box distribution community. More information about the Baby Box Co. can be found at their website. https://www.babyboxco.com/
