Research

Harvard-wide Pediatric Health Services Research Fellowship Program

Milton Kotelchuck, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Milton Kotelchuck is currently Senior Scientist in Maternal and Child Health at the Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy, MassGeneral Hospital for Children and at the MGH Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Visiting Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He was formerly Professor and Chairman of the Maternal and Child Health Departments at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Boston University School of Public Health. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Personality and Developmental Psychology and a Master in Public Health degree in Maternal and Child Health and Epidemiology from Harvard University.

Dr. Kotelchuck has extensive experience evaluating public health programs to improve birth outcomes and child health status.  His research interests include examination of the adequacy and content of prenatal and internatal care, racial disparities in birth outcomes, maternal morbidity, immigrant health, child health services, child nutrition, and health data policy.  He developed the widely used Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index.  His current research interests focus on MCH Life Course models and the creation and utilization of the Massachusetts Pregnancy to Early Life Longitudinal (PELL) data system.  Dr. Kotelchuck has written extensively on racial disparities in perinatal and child health services.  He serves on numerous national committees to improve perinatal and child health services.  Previously he has served as the Director of the Division of Health (Vital) Statistics and Research and then as Assistant Commissioner for Community Health Services, Massachusetts Department of Public Health.  He has been a member of the Massachusetts and North Carolina Governor’s Commissions on the Reduction of Infant Mortality and served as Senior Advisor on Child Health Policy for the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Currently, he serves as a Senior Consultant for MCH Strategic Planning with the Maternal and Child Health Bureau.  He is also Senior and founding Editor of the Maternal and Child Health Journal.  In December 2000, Dr. Kotelchuck was awarded the first National MCH Epidemiology Award for “Advancing Knowledge” from the Coalition for Excellence in MCH Epidemiology, and in November 2010, he received the Martha May Eliot Award from the American Public Health Association for “exceptional health services for mothers and children”.

  1. Kotelchuck M, Zelazo PR, Kagan J, Spelke E.  Infant reactions to parental separations when left with familiar and unfamiliar adults.  J Genetic Psych 1975; 126:255-262.
  2. Kotelchuck M, Schwartz JB, Anderka MT, Finison KS.  WIC participation and pregnancy outcomes: Massachusetts statewide evaluation study. Am J Public Health 1984; 74:1145-1149.
  3. Richmond JB, Kotelchuck M.  The effect of the political process on the delivery of health services.  In:  McGuire CH, Foley RP, Gorr D, Richards RW, eds.  Handbook of Health Professions Education.  San Francisco:  Josey-Bass Publishers, 1983; 386-404.
  4. Richmond JB, Kotelchuck M.  Coordination and development of strategies and policy for public health promotion in the United States.  In: Holland WW, Detels R, Knox EG, eds.  Textbook of Public Health.  London: Oxford Press, 1985; Vol. 2, 195-206.
  5. Kotelchuck M.  An evaluation of the Kessner Adequacy of Prenatal Care Index and a proposed Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index. Am J Public Health 1994; 84:1414-1420.
  6. Kotelchuck M.  Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index:  Its US distribution and association with low birthweight.  Am J Public Health 1994; 84:1486-1489.
  7. Kogan MD, Kotelchuck M, Alexander GR, Johnson W.  Racial disparities in reported prenatal care advice from health care providers.  Am J Public Health 1994; 84(1):82-88. 
  8. Bennett TA, Kotelchuck M, Cox CE, Tucker MJ, Nadeau DA.  Pregnancy - associated hospitalization in the U.S., 1991-1992: a comprehensive view of maternal morbidity. Amer J Ob Gyn 1998; 178(2): 346-354.
  9. Kotelchuck M, Fine A.  The Healthy Start Initiative: Strategic Assessment and Policy Options.  Health Resources and Service Administration, US DHHS, 2000.
  10. Kotelchuck M.  Building on a Life-Course Perspective in Maternal and Child Health.  Mat Child Health J 2003; 7(1): 5-11.
  11. Lu MC, Kotelchuck M, Culhane JF, Hobel CJ, Klerman LV, Thorp JM Jr.  Preconception care between pregnancies: The content of internatal care.  Mat Child Health J, 2006; 10 (Supp. 7): S107-122.
  12. Kotelchuck M.  Pregnancy risk assessment monitoring system (PRAMS): possible new roles for a national MCH data system (editiorial).  Public Health Reports 2006; 121(1): 6-10.
  13. Declercq E, Barger M, Cabral HJ, Evans SR, Kotelchuck M, Simon C, Weiss J, Heffner LJ.  Maternal outcomes associated with planned primary cesareans compared to planned vaginal births.  Obstet Gynecol 2007;109(3):669-77.
  14. Kotelchuck M.  “Safe Mothers, Health Babies: Reproductive Health in the 20th Century.”  In Ward JW and Warren C (eds).  Silent Victories: The History and Practice of Public Health in Twentieth-Century America. Oxford University Press, 2007, 105-134.
  15. Shapiro-Mendoza CK, Tomashek KM, Kotelchuck M, Barfield W, Nannini A, Weiss J, Declercq E.  Effect of late preterm birth and maternal medical conditions on newborn morbidity risk.  Pediatrics.  2008; 121(2): e223-e232.