(Indianapolis, IN, February 14, 2005)—The March of Dimes Indiana Chapter announces that the chapter program services committee made up of volunteers from the maternal and infant health care fields has awarded grants to 12 agencies across Indiana that will address unmet maternal and child health needs.

“These grants address significant maternal and child health issues such as smoking cessation, access to adequate prenatal care and healthy spacing of pregnancies that are of concern in our community,” says Jan Petty, State Director of Program Services and Public Affairs.  “These grants are one way the March of Dimes pursues its mission of preventing birth defects and infant mortality.  Here in Indiana our committee found that the March of Dimes could help mothers and babies through these 12 programs.  We are grateful that our successful fundraising efforts, such as WalkAmerica, make it possible for us to support new efforts to help more babies to be born healthy in Indiana,” she said.

Programs in Indiana receiving March of Dimes Indiana Chapter grants in 2005:

• AIDS Ministries/AIDS Assist of North Indiana, Inc., South Bend- HIV/AIDS Testing &Counseling Program: The goal is to prevent birth defects and reduce the chances of transmission of the HIV virus from mother to infant.
• Ball Memorial Hospital Family Practice Residency, Muncie- Smoking Cessation for Women of Childbearing Age. The focus of this program will be to increase access to smoking cessation services to women of childbearing age.
• Dekalb Memorial Hospital, Auburn – Healthy Expectations: This is an ongoing project focusing on improving the health of expectant mothers and their newborns by providing folic acid education and multivitamins and increasing focus on smoking cessation for reducing the possibility of miscarriage, low birth weight babies, and premature deliveries.
• Children First Center, Auburn -Children’s First- Prenatal Mentoring Program: Project to provide home based prenatal services to eligible mothers-to-be in Dekalb, Noble & Steuben counties to increase access to quality health care. This prenatal home based program would be targeting teen moms and low income mothers.
• HealthNet Community Health Centers, Indianapolis – Smokefree Moms: The funding will allow HealthNet to expand their current smoking cessation program to serve pregnant mothers.
• Elkhart County Health Department, Elkhart-Healthy Beginnings/Healthy Babies: Project funding will support the continuation of two March of Dimes funded bilingual community health workers. Their task being to provide language appropriate prenatal care coordination services to Hispanic pregnant women including education and linkage to vital medical and related services. 
• Howard Regional health Systems, Kokomo - Healthy Teens & Family Planning: This program operates out of the Department of Howard Regional Health Systems, which provides preventive and acute reproductive health care to women and men of childbearing age.  The funding will help the project continue to improve reproductive health and reduce morbidity related to pregnancy and STD’s.
• Hilltop Community Health Center, Inc., Valparaiso – Healthy Beginnings: Healthy Beginnings currently provides prenatal and family care coordination, OB care, and free pregnancy tests. The funding will aid the center in providing prenatal education to the English and Spanish speaking pregnant women of the Hilltop community and surrounding areas, utilizing March of Dimes curriculums. 
• Indiana Health Centers, Inc., Indianapolis – Comenzando Bien: Funding will allow the Indiana Health Centers to implement the Comenzando Bien curriculum at the Cass County clinic and allow them to provide more culturally related services to the perinatal program. 
• Madison County Community Health Centers, Inc., Anderson – Comenzando Bien: This project will prove culturally competent prenatal education to high-risk pregnant women. It will also increase the early entry into prenatal care by these high-risk pregnant women. 
• Maple City Health Care Center, Goshen – Centering Pregnancy: This project is an initiating group prenatal care using the Centering Pregnancy Model.  The model combines prenatal physical assessment with intensive education and psychosocial support using facilitative teaching and group process.
• Neighborhood Health Clinics, Inc., Fort Wayne – Prenatal Translation: Funding to be used to provide translation services to NHCI’s prenatal patients who have little or no English proficiency to ensure the patient’s understanding of prenatal education.

The March of Dimes is a national voluntary health agency whose mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects and infant mortality. Founded in 1938, the March of Dimes funds programs of research, community services, education, and advocacy to save babies and in 2003 launched a five-year campaign to address the increasing rate of premature birth. For more information, visit the March of Dimes Web site at marchofdimes.com/Indiana or its Spanish web site at nacersano.org.  For more information on the annual March of Dimes WalkAmerica, visit the Web site at walkamerica.org.