Transdisciplinary science and practice in action: The maternal and child health journal as shared space

摘要

More than 20 years ago, I was in my first "real" public health job—as a maternal and child health epidemiologist (from New York) with the Bureau of Public Health (in West Virginia). Fresh from my epidemiology training and still working on my PhD (and with my wife pregnant with our second child), I was motivated by the clear importance of the maternal-fetal period in the short-term on immediate health outcomes, and in the long-term on lasting health and well-being. Deeply inspired by the writings of ecologist Rene Dubos (e.g. "think globally, act locally") during my training, I felt—and feel—that the future of civilization depended, at its core, upon healthy pregnancy, safe birth, and nurturing childhoods.