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[Nurse] home visiting programs, paid for through the Affordable Care Act, are at the heart of a sweeping federal effort aimed at one of the nation’s most entrenched social problems: the persistently high rates of infant mortality. The programs have spread to some 800 cities and towns in recent years, and are testing whether successful small-scale efforts to improve children’s health by educating mothers can work on a broad national canvas. Home visiting is an attempt to counter the damaging effects of poverty by changing habits and behaviors that have developed over generations. (Tavernise, 3/8)

Obamacare is a breastfeeding-friendly law. But more than two years in, advocates and doctors are still struggling to educate women about its provisions and to make sure employers and insurance plans comply with them. The list of breastfeeding services that insurers must cover expanded vastly under the Affordable Care Act — a key victory in the ongoing effort to encourage more mothers to nurse their newborns. (Mershon, 3/8)