Maternal and Child Health Certificate Merges Perspectives, Professions to Strategize Solutions

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 26, 2016) — Epidemiologists examine public health problems through a wide-scope lens to determine the impact of disease and health disparities at the population-level. Medical practitioners, on the other hand, are attuned to the health problems of the individual.

During the spring 2016 semester, students in Dr. Henrietta Bada’s maternal and child health course discovered both perspectives are helpful — and necessary — for solving the health problems impacting children and mothers in Kentucky.

The students poured over statistical data showing a strong correlation between low birth weight babies and long-term health consequences, such higher risks of experiencing diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity. But statistics alone couldn’t impart to students, who are taking the class to accrue credits toward the certificate in maternal and child health, the fragility of a newborn experiencing low birth weight. To understand the phenomenon of pre-term birth from a medical practitioner’s viewpoint, Bada took the students on a tour of the Kentucky Children’s Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where the statistics of low birth weight were transformed into real-life stories of families enduring the health problem.

“If you are not receiving enough nutrition, and your organs are small, your organ system is used to conserving energy,” Bada said, explaining the underlying reason for the relationship between low birth weight and long-term health problems, referred to as the “thrifty” phenotype. “The pancreas does not know how to take care of the increase in glucose that it experiences in a normal diet after birth.”

Bada, a neonatologist at KCH who also holds a master’s degree in public health, draws from her experiences in both health disciplines to teach the core course requirement for the maternal and child health certificate in the UK College of Public Health. Regarded as a national expert on neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), Bada has served as a medical practitioner, researcher, and legislative advocate of child and maternal health issues in Kentucky. She believes future public health leaders should learn to think about pediatric and maternal health issues from multiple angles, incorporating the mindset of both an epidemiologist and a medical practitioner.

In addition to her role as a UK College of Public Health instructor, Bada, who is originally from the Philippines, maintains clinical hours in the NICU and mentors fellows in the College of Medicine on research projects. She has served as a principal investigator on several studies examining the long-term outcomes of NAS and pre-term birth and spoke on NAS at national medical conferences.

Students enrolled in Bada’s CPH 740 addressed a broad spectrum of maternal and child health topics, including maternal and fetal nutrition, pre-term birth, congenital conditions, autism, pediatric neurology, child abuse, neonatal abstinence syndrome, teen health and more. The curriculum is formulated to reflect the specific health needs and problems confronting Kentucky families.

“She explains the science behind what we know from statistics,” Katie Long, a student in the 2016 spring semester course, said. “When you understand why it’s important to wait until 39 weeks (to give birth), it adds a different layer of understanding to the problem.”

Bada said doctors practicing bedside medicine and public health professionals tasked with implementing broad-scale interventions benefit and learn from each other’s perspectives. During the course, Bada invited medical professionals from a variety of fields, such as adolescent health and infant nutrition, as guest speakers on child and maternal health issues.

“If you see a patient and determine what’s wrong with the patient, you treat that patient based on your experiences,” Bada said. “Public health will inform medicine because what you are dealing with is finding out how one disease you are treating can effect an entire population. In public health, you can deal with the same problem, but you look at it at the population level. ”

Bada’s spring semester course consisted of students in the master’s in public health (MPH) program, as well as students from the College of Nursing and College of Pharmacy. Some of the students enrolled in this course hope to eventually practice child and maternal medicine, whereas others are interested in developing prevention and intervention programs to solve systemic problems. The certificate in maternal and child health was designed to provide students with concentrated knowledge in the area of child and maternal health, with an emphasis on public health problems affecting the population of Kentucky. The certificate was introduced six years ago in collaboration with Kentucky Department for Public Health.

Students who have completed the certificate have advanced to careers in Kentucky state government and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Lorie Chesnut, director of the certificate program and a professor in the College of Public Health, said the diversity of topics and perspectives prepare students to work in communities and become accustomed to collaboration with other health care professions. 

“It gives them a much more well rounded view of public health practice,” Chesnut said. “That’s the framework — stepping back and looking at a higher level. Someone who looks from both of those points of view are much more in-tuned with the problem.”

Bada thinks multiple professions must work together to solve the health disparities impacting Kentucky. She jokes that it’s the job of public health workers to put doctors out of business — but until then, she’ll continue to hold both roles in health care.

The maternal and child health certificate is open to students across all colleges at the university, as well as health professionals outside the university interested in gaining enhanced expertise in this field. For more information, click here.

MEDIA CONTACT: Elizabeth Adams, elizabethadams@uky.edu