Subcommittee Co-Chairs: Luigi Garcia Saavedra (NM), Deborah Mbotha (WA)

The mission of the MCH Epidemiology Subcommittee is to promote the use of public health surveillance and epidemiologic analysis to guide public health practice and improve Maternal Child Health. The members of the Subcommittee include MCH epidemiologists and professionals with training in epidemiology and statistics who work with MCH data in state, local, and territorial health departments as well as private sector academic settings.

The subcommittee offers training, capacity development, and peer networking. The goals of the subcommittee are to:

1. Promote and improve communication among peers.
2. Assist in strengthening applied epidemiology capacity in the MCH workforce.
3. Advocate positions and recommendations that strengthen MCH.

Current Priorities

• Emerging Threats to Pregnant Persons and Babies
  • In 2024, CSTE developed the Congenital Conditions Surveillance Guidance Workgroup to release Guidelines for public health surveillance case definitions of congenital and perinatal infections, aiding authors of CSTE standardized surveillance statements.
  • Collaborating with CDC to develop guidance for new Surveillance for Emerging Threats to Pregnant People and Infants Network (SET-NET) sites.
• Intersection of MCH and Emergency Preparedness and Response
  • Promoting training for and engagement of MCH Epidemiologists – visit CSTE Learn to complete the CSTE Emergency Preparedness and Response Training for Public Health Epidemiologists.
  • Improving collection of and access to population-level data for MCH populations for use during emergency planning.
  • Understanding the impacts of emerging infections on MCH populations.
• Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) Surveillance
  • Guidance for jurisdictions interested in implementing the NAS Standardized Surveillance Case Definition.
  • Collaboration to inform lab surveillance for opioid exposures in newborns.
  • Join CSTE’s NAS Workgroup via the CSTE NAS Workgroup Interest Form.
• Pregnancy Status Reporting Workgroup
  • In January 2022, CSTE and CDC identified Recommendations for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Health Agencies for Pregnancy Status Reporting.
  • Focused on COVID-19 surveillance with applications for maternal health.
  • Developed the Guidance to Improve Pregnancy Status Reporting Accuracy.
  • Webinar materials available in the CSTE Webinar Library.

Resources:

• Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Standardized Case Definition during the 2019 CSTE Annual Conference, the Council passed 19-MCH-01 to standardize public health surveillance of NAS across jurisdictions. The committee developed and passed a revision during the 2023 CSTE Annual Conference Update to the Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) Standardized Case Definition
CSTE NAS Environmental Scan and Key Informant Interview Analysis Report 2019 Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology and Emergency Preparedness and Response: Capacity Assessment and Key Informant Interview Analysis Report
• Reproductive Health After Disaster Toolkit 2.0.

For more information about the Maternal & Child Health Subcommittee, please contact Valerie Goodson. Click here for other activities.

If interested in joining the listserv, complete the CSTE NAS Workgroup Interest Form.