Eight states to receive grants for local health programs

Pregnant women in eight states will receive prenatal services and education from the March of Dimes, thanks to a $313,000 grant from the WellPoint Foundation, Inc., a private, nonprofit organization wholly funded by WellPoint, Inc.  The funding will be designated to benefit the states of California, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, New York and Virginia to support three critical March of Dimes programs: CenteringPregnancy®, a Preterm Labor Assessment Toolkit and the California Patient Safety Collaboration.

"This grant will help women have healthy babies by educating them about the importance of good health choices," said Alan R. Fleischman, MD, medical director of the March of Dimes. "It also will support our other programs, which can reduce the number of preterm births and increase the number of healthy babies.

CenteringPregnancy® is a model of group prenatal care that includes assessment, education and support facilitated by a health provider. Outcomes for women receiving group care has shown to be better than for those in traditional care.

The Preterm Labor Assessment Toolkit, to be implemented by the support of WellPoint Foundation, helps professionals assess patients with symptoms of preterm labor by measuring a woman's cervical change. The toolkit, currently being used in 30 hospitals across California, was developed to help ensure consistent protocols for evaluating pregnant women who show signs and symptoms of preterm labor.

"These programs are an important component of the Foundation's goals of increasing the number of women who receive prenatal care in the first trimester, helping to reduce the number of babies with low birth weight and the number of babies born preterm," added Lance Chrisman, executive director of the WellPoint Foundation. "We are pleased to support the March of Dimes to address such critical health issues."    

More than 540,000 babies are born too soon each year in the United States.  Preterm birth costs the nation more than $26 billion annually, according to the Institute of Medicine. It is the leading cause of newborn death, and babies who survive an early birth face the risk of lifelong health problems, such as breathing problems, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, developmental delays, and vision and hearing loss.  Even babies born just a few weeks too soon (34-36 weeks gestation, also known as late preterm birth) have higher rates of death and disability than full-term babies.