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Timeline

2007

  • The GlaxoSmithKline Foundation donates $1 million to The What To Expect Foundation to create Baby Basics: Family's 1st Year - a book for underserved moms that helps them know what to expect during baby's first year of life.
  • 7,500 Xaio Bao Bao (in Chinese), 15,000 Hola Bebé and 15,000 Baby Basics are printed.
  • The Baby Basics Planner is translated into 12 more languages and is now available in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, French, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Korean, Punjabi, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Urdu.
  • Planning begins with Los Angeles Best Baby Collaborative to incorporate the Baby Basics Program into their countywide initiative.
  • The first National Baby Basics Program Meeting brings healthcare professionals from around the country together with home visitors, literacy educators, high school teachers, librarians and community leaders to discuss the Baby Basics Program and next steps for continued replication and evaluation.

2006

  • Clorox and The What To Expect Foundation announce a What To Expect Healthy Home campaign to teach families how to stay healthy during cold and flu season. Heidi Murkoff and Clorox donate all the proceeds ($1 million) to the Foundation.
  • The What To Expect Foundation and The March of Dimes announce a partnership to help low-income families have healthy pregnancies.
  • Evaluations of the Baby Basics Program show that mothers were more likely to attend their prenatal appointments, report a higher level of satisfaction with care, and are more likely to attend their postpartum appointments - all important benchmarks for public health providers.
  • The United Hospital Fund gives the Foundation a grant to create Xaio Bao Bao a Chinese linguistic AND cultural translation of Baby Basics. The Foundation partners with Charles B. Wang Community Health Center in Chinatown and hospitals nationwide including UCLA to create the translation. An additional 50,000 copies of Baby Basics are printed.
  • A Baby Basics Pregnancy PALS (Pregnancy Adult Literacy Support) program is started in Queens, NY. Volunteers in the waiting room help expecting women to develop questions for their doctor, and look up answers in Baby Basics while waiting for their prenatal appointments.
  • Additional Baby Basics Programs form across the country including Chattanooga, TN, Queens and the Bronx, NY.
  • The Baby Basics Planner - an organizer and portable medical records program for moms is created.

2004

  • A report from the Institute of Medicine says as many as 90 million people have low health literacy which is the ability to read, understand and act upon health information. The cost is estimated at $75 billion.
  • Former US Surgeon General VADM Richard Carmona attends the launch of the Houston Collaborative, and calls Baby Basics a "health literacy program he hopes will be replicated nationwide." The program is a partnership of prenatal care health providers, community based organizations and the literacy providers of Houston. The Foundation receives a certificate of Congressional Recognition from the State of Texas commending the efforts to "ease health disparities."
  • Baby Basics books are offered for sale at a greatly reduced cost, only to governmental or not for profit organizations that work with underserved families.
  • The SW Virginia Perinatal Consortium starts the first rural Baby Basics Program in Appalachia reaching moms who are physically as well as socially isolated.
  • Hundreds of programs across the country work with the Foundation to raise enough money to provide books to all of their pregnant mothers, the Foundation reaches 250,000 families nationwide.
  • The Altman Foundation funds the first evaluation of a Baby Basics Clinical Program in New York City, in partnership with Medical Health Research Associates (MHRA). This program builds supportive prenatal education groups that moms attend while waiting for their appointment, training for the doctors, nurses and clerical staff, children's books for waiting siblings, and a rigorous evaluation. A storage room is transformed into a vibrant education room. The walls are painted to match the Baby Basics book cover.
  • Nurse Family Partnership home visiting programs across the Northeast buy Baby Basics books for all of their home visiting programs.           

2003      

  • The US Department of Health and Human Services reports that the US infant mortality rate is higher than 28 other countries. The US Department of Education finds that over 50 million Americans read below a 5th grade reading level.
  • Baby Basics is translated into Spanish as Hola Bebé. 50,000 copies are printed.
  • Baby Basics is revised and goes back to press for an additional 100,000 copies.
  • The Baby Basics curriculum for healthcare providers and a health literacy training for doctors who work with low-income, lower literacy parents is developed.
  • A grant from BMW builds the first Baby Basics Program in Newark, NJ in partnership with Gateway MCH and University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ. US Senator Jon Corzine launches the program.
  • A grant from HealthNet, Los Angeles' largest Medicaid Managed Care Plan enables the Foundation to donate 7,500 copies of Hola Bebé to Associated Hispanic Physicians and other prenatal care providers in East Los Angeles. Congresswoman Hilda Solis and other LA dignitaries launch the program with a mariachi band and public service announcement in Spanish.

2002      

  • 30,000 copies of Baby Basics are donated to the Los Angeles County Department of Health, and distributed to providers who treat low-income populations throughout the county.
  • The What To Expect Foundation receives a commendation from the County of LA "in recognition of dedicated service to the affairs of the community."  The Health Department hosts a "World's Largest Baby Shower" to mark the event and a group of pregnant celebrities join expecting moms from across the city.
  • 30,000 copies of Baby Basics are donated, in partnership with the New York City Maternal and Child Health Bureau, to healthcare centers and community based organizations across all 5 boroughs.
  • 5,000 copies of Baby Basics are donated to the Washington D.C. Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Mrs. Alma Powell chairs an event to celebrate the donation and program.
  • 10,000 copies of Baby Basics are donated to health centers, Early Head Start programs, adult literacy programs and other prenatal organizations across the country.
  • A nationwide study of the Baby Basics book shows that the book encourages moms (and dads!) to read about pregnancy, and leads to more questions asked during appointments. Requests pour in for books from programs and mothers across the country and prompt the Foundation to build a comprehensive, Baby Basics prenatal health literacy program.

2001      

  • 100,000 copies of Baby Basics, (written to a 5th grade reading level) are published by The What To Expect Foundation to rave reviews from the providers and parents who call it a "What To Expect" for underserved families.

2000

  • Nissan and The What To Expect Foundation partner to create a car seat safety campaign. All proceeds from the campaign ($1.5 million) are donated by Nissan and Heidi Murkoff to start The What To Expect Foundation so that "families in-need know what to expect when expecting."
  • Research begins across the country (in cities such as Los Angeles and New York, from Appalachia to Native American Pueblos) to create Baby Basics the first comprehensive prenatal guide to address the specific health, economic, cultural and literacy skills of at-risk expecting families nationwide.