Every year during National Breastfeeding Month in August, individuals and organizations recognize efforts to advance policies and practices for breastfeeding support across the United States. The first week of National Breastfeeding Month, August 1-7, 2018, is World Breastfeeding Week.

According to the Office on Women’s Health (OWH), breastfed babies have lower risks of obesity during childhood, ear infections, asthma, and numerous other benefits. Breastfeeding can help a mother's health and healing following childbirth and leads to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, certain types of breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Unfortunately, African American mothers have the lowest rates of starting and continuing to breastfeed their infant.

Visit OWH’s Guide to Breastfeeding website for more information for more breastfeeding facts.

Back-to-school time is fast approaching, and it is important that school-aged children – kindergarten to college – receive vaccines before returning to school. August is National Immunization Awareness Month, an observance used to highlight the importance of vaccination for people of all ages and to raise awareness about the important role vaccines play in preventing serious, sometimes deadly, diseases. Visit CDC’s recommended immunization schedule for children and adolescents aged 18 years or younger for more information on vaccination schedules and disease prevention methods for children.

National Health Center Week (NHCW) is an annual celebration  to share the mission and accomplishments of America’s health centers over the past five decades. Nearly 1,400 health centers operating more than 10,400 sites in communities across the nation are funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration through grants and funding efforts. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1 in 12 people across every U.S. state and territory rely on health centers as their source of health care. For more information about events during the week, visit the NHCW website.  

The National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program is a historic effort to gather data from one million or more people living in the U.S. to accelerate research and improve health. The mission of the All of Us Research Program is to speed up health breakthroughs by collecting health information from one million participants. The information collected will be used for future health studies to improve health. Visit the All of Us Research Program website to learn more about the valiant efforts of NIH research and how you can participate.

The Office of Minority Health participates in several national conferences to increase awareness about health disparities among ethnic racial minority groups, promote the importance of achieving health equity for all and share resources that health professionals and advocates can use in the organizations and communities.

We encourage you to visit the OMH booth if you are attending the following conferences:

National Medical Association

August 11-15, 2018

Orlando, FL

American Association of Diabetes Educators

August 17-20, 2018

Baltimore, MD

United States Conference on AIDS
September 6-9, 2018
Orlando, FL

CityMatch
September 12-14, 2018
Portland, OR

The Office of Minority Health Resource Center Knowledge Center has developed an extensive collection of documents specifically related to the health of minority populations.

Did you know that you can submit recommendations to add new books and published reports to the online catalog? The Knowledge Center team welcomes suggestions and recommendations. Submit this form to comment on the database or suggest new publications related to health equity issues.

Click here to gain access to the Knowledge Center’s Online Catalog and see the latest documents entered into the database.