Societies that create conditions for healthy families and communities and invest in effective health systems and services extending from the perinatal period through infancy and childhood reap the benefits of healthier women, children, and families. In this course, programs, services, and policies to the wider aim of improving birth outcomes and sustaining the health and well-being of mothers, fathers, and children (ages 0-11) in the U.S.Of course, the path to effective services and policies is not always clear, either because political priorities do not support the aim, the evidence about what works is incomplete, inadequate, or poorly communicated to policy-makers, or because the challenges of implementation are daunting. Throughout the course, we will integrate each of these perspectives (political, scientific, and practical) as we critically examine a wide array of perinatal and child health services and the policies (MCH and cross-sectoral) that under gird them. The life course perspective, with its integration of human development and the cumulative effects of the social determinants of health, will serve as a guiding theoretical framework for the course; and, in turn, the promotion of equity and elimination of racial/ethnic disparities in outcomes and services will be a key thread in all of our discussions and activities.