Advocacy

As one of our state's leaders in infant mortality reduction, the North Carolina Healthy Start Foundation is instrumental in advising and educating policy makers on issues pertaining to the health and well-being of women and children in North Carolina.

The Foundation works with state and local officials to promote policies pertaining to the reduction of infant death and illness including: promoting healthy lifestyles for women of childbearing age, improving access to available healthcare services, reducing the risk of SIDS, and increasing the availability of children's health insurance. The Foundation also supports legislation and funding related to issues directly affecting infant death and illness in the Tar Heel state.

Recent Foundation efforts contributed to legislation, passed in 2003, related to reducing SIDS deaths in childcare settings. The N.C. Prevent SIDS law now requires that licensed childcare providers position babies to sleep on their back, develop written policies and receive state-approved "safe sleep" training, as part of efforts to reduce SIDS deaths. As a result, more than 24,000 childcare providers have received safe sleep training developed and coordinated by the Foundation.

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