For more Information contact:  
Tim J. Arndt, State Director of Communications, tarndt@marchofdimes.com
Minjoo Morlan, Assoc. State Dir. of Program Services, mmorlan@marchofdimes.com

WELLPOINT FOUNDATION AWARDS $313,000 TO MARCH OF DIMES TO HELP GIVE MORE BABIES A HEALTHY START IN LIFE
Indiana to Receive Grant for Local Health Programs
 
(Indianapolis, IN, May 5, 2010) – Pregnant women in Indiana will receive critical 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.

“This grant will help women have healthy babies by educating them about the importance of good health choices,” said Tanya Hand, Indiana Chapter State Director “It’s important for women who are pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant to use this time to educate themselves on how to have a healthy, full-term baby.”

The Indiana Chapter of the March of Dimes will receive and utilize $50,000 of the overall grant to fund CenteringPregnancy® Programs in Indiana.  CenteringPregnancy® is a multi-session, group prenatal care model that combines prenatal health assessment, education, and support.  After an initial obstetric exam, women are invited to join a group of 8-12 women with similar due dates to attend ten, 90-120 minute CenteringPregnancy® sessions that are co-conducted by two group facilitators.  Results of this form of prenatal care have shown significant reduction in premature birth (vs. one-on-one care patients), significant increase in prenatal care satisfaction and significant rise in women receiving optimal prenatal care.

Organizations implementing the CenteringPregnancy® Program in Indiana:
• Family Health Services, Rushville, IN
• Open Door/Ball Memorial Hospital Health Center, Muncie, IN
• HealthNet, Inc., Indianapolis, IN
• Union Hospital Maternal Health Clinic, Terre Haute, IN

More than 540,000 babies are born too soon each year in the United States. In Indiana 12.8% of babies, over 11,000 a year, are born too soon.  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, 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.

“This program is an important component of the WellPoint 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 birthweight 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.”

The WellPoint Foundation, Inc. is a private, non-profit organization wholly funded by WellPoint, Inc. Through charitable contributions and programs, the Foundation promotes WellPoint’s inherent commitment to enhance the health and well-being of individuals and families in communities that WellPoint’s affiliate health plans serve. The Foundation focuses its funding on strategic initiatives that address and provide innovative solutions to health care challenges, as well as promoting the Healthy Generations Program, a multi-generational initiative that targets specific disease states and medical conditions. These disease states and medical conditions include: prenatal care in the first trimester, lowbirth weight babies, cardiac morbidity rates, long term activities that decrease obesity and increase physical activity, diabetes prevalence in adult populations, adult pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations and smoking cessation. The Foundation also coordinates the company’s annual associate giving campaign and provides a 50 percent match of associates’ campaign pledges. To learn more about the WellPoint Foundation  please visit http://www.wellpointfoundation.org/.

The March of Dimes works to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.  For more information, visit the March of Dimes Web site at marchofdimes.com or its Spanish language Web site at nacersano.org.