With the passing of Social Security Act in 1935, the federal government pledged its support of State efforts to extend health and welfare services for mothers and children.

Administration of the Title V grant program was initially assigned to the Children’s Bureau, giving maternal and child welfare equal status with the unemployment compensation and old-age provisions of the Social Security Act.

The move was intended to simplify the relationship between number grant-in-aid programs and complex intergovernmental efforts related to education, health, welfare and the social security in the Nation.

[6] Seventy-five years after its inception, the Title V MCH program remains the longest lasting federal public health legislation in U.S. history.

SPRANS projects support research and training, genetics services and newborn screening, and treatments for sickle cell disease and hemophilia.

States and jurisdictions use their Title V funds to design and implement a wide range of MCH and children with special health care needs activities that address national and state needs, including efforts to: reduce infant mortality; provide access to comprehensive prenatal and postnatal care for women; increase the number of children receiving health assessments and follow-up diagnostics and treatment; and provide access to preventive care (including immunizations) and rehabilitative services for children.

MCHB funds public and private non-profit institutions of higher learning to provide leadership training in MCH.

[11] MCHB’s Healthy Start program began in 1991 with grants to 15 communities with infant mortality rates 1.5 to 2.5 times the national average.

[14] It is very difficult to conduct the sort of evaluation project, using control groups, which might isolate the effect of Healthy Start intervention from many other contributing variables on measurable outcomes.

However, one recent national evaluation[15] showed that a greater percentage of participants in selected Healthy Start Programs reported breastfeeding and using evidence-based safe sleep practices compared to a comparison group of mothers matched for low income and education.