Idaho State University Anderson center to host Maternal Health fair May 18

Idaho State University's Anderson Gender Resource Center, together with the Office on Women's Health, will host the fourth annual Maternal Health Fair Friday, May 18.

The event, which is free of charge, will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Pond Student Union Ballroom. Students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to attend.

The fair will feature booths and information from ISU resources as well as several community organizations and businesses that may be of interest to anyone with a small child in their life. This is not an event exclusive to pregnant women and mothers; everyone with an interest in children and health is encouraged to come. Refreshments will be provided.

Maeve Howett, Ph.D., is this year’s featured keynote speaker, giving her presentation "Reconceptualizing Infant Feeding from a Feminist Perspective."

Howett is a pediatric nurse practitioner and lactation consultant, as well as a clinical assistant professor in family and community nursing at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University, Ga. She has 25 years of pediatric nursing experience with research interests in women's experiences of infant feeding, early childhood nutrition, toxic exposures in infants and lactating women, and vulnerable pediatric populations. She is president of the Southeastern Lactation Consultants Association (SELCA) and is involved with numerous organizations working with health in mothers and young children.

Howett's teaching interests include research, global health, migrant health, hospitalized children, lactation and vulnerable populations. At-risk mother-infant pairs that are made vulnerable by poverty or lack of resources are an area of special interest to her. For the last six years she has taken her students to south Georgia to care for the children of migrant workers and to Jamaica to care for children living in orphanages.

Businesses or organizations interested in participating and hosting a booth at the Maternal Health Fair can find the registration form at www.isu.edu/andersoncenter.

For questions or more information, contact the Anderson Center at 282-2805.

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*Funding for this activity was made possible in part by the HHS, Office on Women's Health. The views expressed in written materials or publications and by speakers and moderators at HHS-sponsored conferences, do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does the mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.