Section celebrates 100 years of service to maternal, child health: Advocacy, innovation mark first century
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* Aaron Warnick

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[Figure1](http://www.thenationshealth.org/content/51/7/15.1/F1)

Members of APHA’s Maternal and Child Health Section meet at APHA headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 2019. The Section is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, with members working to organize, catalog and share its history. The celebration includes a video series on past influential members.

Courtesy of Maternal and Child Health Section

APHA’s Maternal and Child Health Section is celebrating its century-long work for the health of children and families.

The member group has addressed a wide range of issues during its lifetime, from petitioning against child labor to supporting reproductive access and gun violence prevention.

When the Section was formed in 1921, it was called the Child Hygiene Section. This was a time when public health debates were centered around child labor and health.

Over time, the Section expanded its focus, but promoting the health and welfare of families has been its guiding star, said Section member Deborah Klein Walker, EdD, who is leading the group’s anniversary celebration.

As part of the Section’s centennial, members are working to organize, catalog and share its history. The project includes a video series that features past Section chairs, as well as past winners of the group’s annual Martha May Eliot Award.

“Think of the major advances in the health for families — from Aid to Families with Dependent Children in the 1935 Social Security Act, to Medicaid, to WIC and CHIP, and now ACA and the Momnibus bill — we have been there,” Walker, an APHA past president, told *The Nation’s Health*.

The Section has long been at the forefront of public health advocacy. The group has been a stalwart advocate for reproductive health and rights and recently became a strong voice for gun violence prevention.

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APHA members talk at the Section’s booth at the Annual Meeting in 2010 in Denver.

Photo by The Nation’s Health

“Sandy Hook was a pivotal event for our advocacy,” Walker said. “After that tragedy, it became clear this had to become an urgent priority to safeguard the health of children and families.”

Soon after the 2012 elementary school shooting — during which 20 children and six adults were killed — the Section formed a workgroup. Members organized to advocate for stricter gun violence prevention policies, and bringing school and faith-based community leaders together with local stakeholders to address the public health threat.

The Section continues to evolve its focus. More recently, members brought equity to the core of its mission.

“Our first 100 years was largely in service of making sure that women had actual rights and the ability to make choices about their health and the health of their children,” MCH Section Chair Nancy Cheak-Zamora, PhD, told *The Nation’s Health*. “But now we must diversify what we stand for and, frankly, to make sure our work is not only to the benefit of white women and their children.”

The Maternal and Child Health Section’s second century promises to be as substantive as its first century has been.

Currently, the Section is broadening its mission by adding paternal health to its focus and promoting a diverse health workforce, Cheak-Zamora said. Both are public health issues that need addressing.

As part of its 100th anniversary celebration, the Section is launching an ambitious project to create a $100,000 endowment, which will be used to promote teaching and developing young professionals for years to come.

“By investing in new, diverse cohorts of public health professionals, we can carry our work forward,” Walker said.

The Section has a full slate of activities planned for APHA’s 2021 Annual Meeting and Expo in Denver, including scientific sessions and a luncheon to present the Martha May Eliot Award, which honors extraordinary health services to mothers and children.

For more information on the Section, visit [bit.ly/mchapha](http://bit.ly/mchapha).

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association