This paper is composed of three distinct but interrelated parts that together map the past, present, and future of addressing racial inequities in Maternal and Child Health. Part I recounts the history and achievements of a Centers for Disease for Control and Prevention initiative in the 1980–90’s, led by the Prematurity Research Group in the Division of Reproductive Health, Pregnancy and Infant Health Branch. [Maternal Child Health Journal]

This initiative stimulated a paradigm shift in how we understand and address black infant mortality and the inequities in this outcome. Part II illustrates examples of some exemplary programmatic and policy legacies that stemmed either directly or indirectly from the Centers for Disease for Control and Prevention paradigm shift. Part III provides a discussion of how efectively the current practice in Maternal and Child Health applies this paradigm to address inequities and proposes a path for accelerating Title V agencies’ progress toward birth equity. 

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