Transforming Sickness
and Struggle into Triumph,
Empowerment, and a
Celebration of Community
By
Zen Honeycutt
Founder and Executive Director,
Moms Across America
According to an article published in Health Affairs in January of 2018:
The United States has poorer child health outcomes than other wealthy nations despite greater per capita spending on health care for children. To better understand this phenomenon, we examined mortality trends for the US and nineteen comparative nations in children ages 0–19 from 1961 to 2010 using publicly available data. While child mortality progressively declined across all countries, mortality in the US has been higher than in peer nations since the 1980s. From 2001 to 2010 the risk of death in the US was 76 percent greater for infants and 57 percent greater for children ages 1–19.
However, despite these facts, Child Health Day is not a conversation about medical statistics and mortality rates. It is a conversation about doing the right thing to the best of our ability every step of the way - and helping others to do the same. There is no single action that any of us can make that will truly be good for our families - that isn’t good for families everywhere. There is no action that we take that puts our child in harm's way - but no one else’s. We are a community - what affects one affects all.
Let us be reminded of the need to vigilantly act on behalf of children’s health every day of the year. Whether you are voting with your dollars at the grocery store, educating moms in your community about health freedoms, or asking your neighbors or city hall to make public spaces safer for all by not spraying chemicals on their gardens - you are making a difference in the health of children everywhere. Moving forward, I suggest that we all ask ourselves - everyday - what have I done to make today Child Health Day?
We thank you for being part of our community and working every day to make a difference for us all.