State gets a C for well-being of mothers, young children

   Colorado is a great place to be a mom when it comes to finding child care, getting paid time off work and breathing clean air.

   But when it comes to prenatal health care, finding affordable health insurance for children or avoiding complications during pregnancy, the state falls behind most others.

   Factoring in the good and bad, Colorado ranks 28th in the nation for maternal health, based on a series of factors considered to be the most important by a group of doctors and public health officials.

   The findings come from a national ranking of maternal health, the momScore, released Wednesday in advance of Mother's Day.

   The company that produced the report, Revolution Health, is focused on providing health care information in a user-friendly way for consumers.

   "It's like the best possible CliffsNotes on a very difficult topic," said Dr. Val Jones, senior medical director of Revolution Health.

   The scores of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., are designed to be a snapshot of mothers' and young children's well-being.

   Colorado scored 74.5 out of 100, or a C, compared with No. 1 Vermont (94.5) and No. 51 Mississippi (61.5).

   In Colorado, results reveal a divide in which basic lifestyle qualities rank high, while key health care areas, such as health insurance coverage and prenatal care, come in low.

   For example, Colorado ranked 10th in the nation for family paid leave policies but fell to 38th for affordable children's health insurance.

   The study, available at www.revolutionhealth.com, looked at about 50 indicators from various federal and state sources, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

   It also considered data from nonprofit groups such as the Kaiser Family Foundation.

   Those factors were narrowed to 10 attributes that most contribute to the health of mothers and young children.

   A panel of experts determined how important each quality was, and weighted scores were created for each area.

   Jones said women make about 80 percent of the health care decisions for their families, and they tend to do much of their research online.

   She hopes the report will help them get involved in addressing shortcomings in their communities, or perhaps be better informed when making a decision about relocating to another state.

   Ann Stager, director of the Maternal Child Health Program at the El Paso County Department of Health and Environment, said maternal health is a pressing public health concern, because troubled pregnancies and unhealthy infants can create health concerns generations later.

   "We know healthy moms help us to have healthy children and future generations for our society," she said.

   El Paso County gauges maternal health based chiefly on prenatal care, pregnancy complications, infant mortality and low birth weight.

   In each of those areas, the county numbers are worse than the state's.

   One way the county is trying to improve maternal health is through the Nurse Family Partnership, in which a nurse follows a mother through her pregnancy until the child turns 2, and mothers are educated on health, parenting and development.

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REPORT CARD

Colorado scored 74.5 out of 100 in a national study of maternal and early childhood health. A group of experts determined the importance of the various categories and assigned a different point scale to each.

Access to prenatal care: 14.5 out of 20

Air quality: 3 out of 3.5

Availability of child care services: 7 out of 9

Family paid leave policy: 4.5 out of 6.5

Health care coverage rate: 11.5 out of 16

Infant mortality: 7 out of 8.5

Maternal mortality: 6 out of 7.5

Risk of pregnancy complications: 7.5 out of 11

Affordability of children's health insurance: 7 out of 11

Violent crime rate: 5.5 of 7

SOURCE: Revolution Health