If you have been following MOMboTV over the last few weeks, you know that we are up to ’something’…..something BIG. Be sure to tune in to MOMbo TV Saturday, July 11th, when we will finally make our BIG announcement!

The report, “The Disaster Decade: Lessons Unlearned for the United States,” was released at a D.C.-area child-care center by Mark Shriver, Save the Children U.S. Programs Managing Director, along with actor and advocate Julianne Moore, Artist Ambassador.

“The past decade is defined by unrelenting and unprecedented disasters that left children unprotected in schools and child care,” said Shriver.  “The most vulnerable Americans in the most vulnerable settings are made more vulnerable because of government inaction.”

Commissioned by Save the Children and conducted by Brown, Berkley and Tucker, the report reviewed four standards in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and found that only seven states — Arkansas, Maryland, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Alabama and Vermont — are meeting four key standards.

The four key standards identified by Save the Children include evacuation and relocation, reunification and plans for special needs children at child-care facilities, as well as multi-hazard plans at schools.

Save the Children is calling for immediate action at the federal level to better protect children through a five-point plan:

1. Establish national disaster preparedness standards for child-care centers and schools.

• Establish an Office of Children’s Advocacy at FEMA.
• To ensure child-care centers can rebuild and restore services more quickly following a disaster, make them eligible for federal disaster aid.
• Establish a White House Commission on the effects of the recession on children.
• Create a federal public awareness campaign to educate families about protecting children during disasters.

“Enacting this plan will help ensure that when disaster strikes the effects on our children don’t become a disaster in their own right,” said Moore, who lobbied Capitol Hill on Wednesday for enactment of the five-point plan.

Save the Children is also calling on the public to get involved by signing a petition supporting the five-point plan to protect children during disasters.

Go to http://savethechildren.org/disaster-decade for more information and to sign the petition. The full report can be found at http://savethechildren.org/disaster-decade-report.

Have a great summer….and be sure to check back often!

As families across the United States celebrated Mother’s Day, the Women’s Prison Association (WPA) released the first-ever national report on prison nursery programs.  These programs allow incarcerated women to keep their newborn babies with them in prison for a finite period of time.  The report also looks at community-based residential parenting programs, which allow women to serve criminal justice sentences with their infants in a non-prison setting.

The findings of the report reveal that while the number of prison-based nursery programs is growing, such programs are still relatively rare.  Every state has seen dramatic increases in its women’s prison population over the past three decades, but only nine states have prison nursery programs in operation or under development.  Of the nine prison nursery programs in existence or in development, four were created within the last five years.

Chandra Villanueva, Policy Associate at WPA and author of the report commented, “Prison nursery programs keep mothers and infants together during the critical first months of infant development, and the research shows that these programs produce lower rates of recidivism among participating mothers.  As we recognize the benefits of prison nursery programs, we must also increase our investment in community-based alternatives, which allow for maternal/child bonding and enable women to address the issues that brought them into the criminal justice system in the first place”

Research highlighted in the report indicates that these programs benefit mothers and children.  Dr. Mary Byrne, Professor at Columbia University says, “Prison nurseries offer needed services to a population of women and infants who might otherwise be overlooked. However, additional community prevention programs, alternatives to incarceration, and seamless follow-up programs are needed.”  Dr. Byrne is the author of the first longitudinal study of maternal and child outcomes for prison nursery participants; her study is featured in the WPA report.

The WPA report profiles existing and soon-to-open prison nursery programs in nine states: California, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Nebraska, New York, South Dakota, Washington, and West Virginia,  and also looks at community-based residential parenting programs in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Illinois, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Vermont.  Residential parenting programs operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Connecticut , Florida , Illinois , Texas , and West Virginia are also discussed.

The report suggest that many women who are parenting infants in prison nurseries could be doing so in the community instead.   The profile of women in prison nurseries is nearly identical to that of participants in community-based programs.  Women in both types of programs are serving relatively short sentences for non-violent offenses, and will continue primary caretaking responsibility for their child(ren) upon release.   Further, most women in prison nursery programs present little risk to public safety.

Tina Reynolds, a former participant in a prison nursery program in New York, and the founder of Women on the Rise Telling HerStory (WORTH), underscored this finding: “While I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend the first months of my son’s life with him while serving my sentence in prison, it was not without sadness felt for my other son who was in foster care. I often questioned if the time I spent in prison wouldn’t have been better spent learning about myself and my children in community-based family treatment.” 

Between 1977 and 2007, the number of women in prison in the United States increased by 832 percent.  According to data released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), in 2004 four percent of women in state prisons and three percent of women in federal prisons were pregnant at the time of admittance.  In 1999, BJS reported that six percent of women in local jails were pregnant at the time of admittance.  As the number of women in prison has skyrocketed over the past 30 years, states have had to consider what it means to incerate women, many of whom are pregnant or parenting.

Dr. Angela M. Tomlin, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, reflected on the nursery program at the Indiana Women’s Prison, saying, “The experiences that mothers and babies have in the nursery are vital because one of the most important things we can do for a baby is to support her to have a strong and healthy relationship with her parents. Once a baby feels safe in a relationship, everything else—from cognitive skills, to school readiness, to positive mental health later in life—grows from that foundation.   For mothers, a strong attachment to her baby may reduce the likelihood of recidivism. The prison nursery is an investment in the future, one mother and baby at a time.”

The report, Mothers, Infants and Imprisonment: A National Look at Prison Nurseries and Community–Based Alternatives, is available online at www.wpaonline.org.

I’m one of those mothers who love Mother’s Day. I can’t wait for the homemade gifts, the breakfast in bed drenched in syrup and sticky kisses, and it is always the day I plant my garden with my family.

But a few years ago, Mother’s Day became so much more than those wonderful sticky kisses  –  it became a day that I stand in solidarity with mothers around the world to demand a safe, bountiful and meaningful  life for all the world’s children.

I stand side by side with Julia Ward Howe, one of our great founding mothers, who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic and also penned the very first Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870. She called on women to “arise,” and wrote, “as men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.” She goes on to say, “Let them meet first as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace…” 

Wow. That’s where Mother’s Day originated. In the courageous arms of the mothers and grandmothers of the Civil War. It wasn’t Hallmark after all.

Written at a time when our country was still healing from the ravages of war, partisanship and economic strife. She wrote this when women had no political voice or rights, and 50 years before women got the right to vote. She was truly a mother to be proud of - courageous, just, and committed to a peaceful and prosperous world for all women and their children.

So, as I am enveloped by the sweetness of Mother’s Day, I will allow myself to be pampered and cared for. But, I will also raise my voice to bring dignity to all mothers and remember the original intent of this auspicious day, when mothers were initially called to greatness by the Mother of Mother’s Day.

This spring 100+ Mother Leaders across the country will celebrate Mother’s Day by signing pledge cards, collecting post cards, and meeting with their members of Congress to joyfully demand a more just and equitable world for all. To add your voice to this beautiful collaboration of mothers and others, find us at Stand for the World’s Children.

Stacy Carkonen is an advocate and Mother Leader in Sumner, Washington. For more information: www.standfortheworldschildren.org 

Before I became a mother, viruses and other ailments came and went but rarely hit my radar.

Since the birth of my daughter things have changed. I’m more conscious of my own health and safety and have developed an unnerving knack for anticipating and preventing the most bizarre risks to her wellbeing.

The ongoing sensationalized news about human influenza A (H1N1 or swine flu) could tap into any mother’s deepest fears for her children. Although I share my life and my daughter with a logic-driven scientist who assures me the chances of our catching the virus are currently minute, in my weaker moments I worry a little.

I discovered this morning that it’s not just me. The highly educated, well-traveled and worldly friend I met for brunch with her baby today asked if we should offer the customary Swiss three-kiss greeting, or skip it because of swine flu.

I scoffed and kissed as usual.

But after using the toilet I washed my hands, then pulled my new antibacterial gel out of the diaper bag and wiped mine and my little one’s hands for extra protection. And again when we got into the car before heading home. And let’s be honest: I’ll do it when we’re at Baby Gym and anywhere else public this week, and have given the sitter strict instructions about using the gel with the little one any time she takes her out.

My friends and neighbours with small children are all equally conscious and concerned. 

So far, logic and calm are winning in our house. We remain vigilant in the usual ways (washing hands, covering noses and mouths when coughing and sneezing, etc) but won’t change our lives and become hermits until the virus goes away as some news reports seemed to suggest we should.

If you’re feeling nervous and wondering what you can do to keep yourself and your children safe, start by avoiding most of the news reporting about the swine flu. Instead, go straight to the source. Swine flu information ‘command central’ is at www.who.int. This is where the media go for information, and where any changes will be reported first. If you read what’s there, you’ll get the facts ma’am, nothing but the facts.

And between routine checks of the WHO’s influenza A site, follow the advice now being given in the UK: “Catch it, bin it, kill it!” Meaning: use tissues to cover nose and mouth when sneezing and coughing, throw all tissues away as soon as possible after first use, and wash your hands as soon as possible. If everyone follows these basic hygiene rules, the virus will have a much tougher time spreading to a friend or loved one near you.

Anne Ferguson has been writing about health and related topics for nearly 15 years.  Most recently, she joined the ranks of accredited freelance writers for the World Health Organisation, where she is working on advocacy documents to help reduce national and global rates of maternal and newborn mortality.  Originally from Canada, Anne currently resides with her family in Geneva, Switzerland.