Agency: Anne Arundel Medical Center (Anne Arundel County, Md.)
Grant Title: Comenzando Bien: Healthy Beginnings
Grant Amount: $17,000
Using the March of Dimes Comenzando Bien curriculum, this project will provide prenatal health education classes three times a week to about 400 expectant Hispanic women at sites in Annapolis and Glen Burnie.  The project is a collaborative effort between the Medical Center and the County Health Department. The Medical Center will also conduct a regional continuing education conference for maternal and child-health advocates.

Agency: Baltimore Medical Systems, Inc. (Baltimore, Md.)
Grant Title: Stork’s Nest at St. Agnes Hospital
Grant Amount: $21,000
Funding will allow continued operation of the Stork’s Nest at St. Agnes Hospital.  Stork’s Nest, a collaborative program of the March of Dimes and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, provides incentives to women and their partners to regularly attend prenatal appointments and educational sessions at the hospital.  The project will target 250 African American and Hispanic women and their families who receive their health care from obstetric providers at St. Agnes Hospital. 

Agency: Carroll Hospital Center (Carroll County, Md.)
Grant Title: Best Beginnings
Grant Amount: $18,000
This project is a collaborative effort between the Carroll Hospital Center, the County Health Department and community obstetricians. Best Beginnings provides increased access to health care for low-income, uninsured and underserved pregnant women. Efforts will include implementing the March of Dimes Comenzando Bien curriculum for clients and conducting a Centering Pregnancy® workshop for health-care providers and partners. The program will reach 140 Best Beginnings clients, community members and health-care providers.

Agency: Children’s National Medical Center (District of Columbia)
Grant Title: SIDS Outreach Project
Grant Amount: $15,000
This project will provide SIDS risk-reduction information to caregivers of infants at high risk for SIDS, specifically low-income African American parents and child-care providers. Approximately 400 individuals will be served during the grant year. Plans also include a new educational intervention program for teenage parents enrolled in the District of Columbia Public Schools.

Agency: INMED Partnership for Children (Ashburn, Va.)
Grant Title: MotherNet Loudoun
Grant Amount: $20,000
This program will provide high-risk, medically underserved pregnant women and adolescents—mostly Hispanic women—with perinatal health education through community-based classes and home visits. The program will also provide case management and health-access services that help prevent preterm birth and promote healthy birth outcomes. Approximately 135 individuals (95 adults, 40 infants) will be served by this project.

Agency: Northern Virginia Perinatal Council and INOVA Health System Foundation (Falls Church, Va.)
Grant Title: Enhancing Prenatal Care for Northern Virginia through Centering Pregnancy®
Grant Amount: $18,000
The grant will provide training for Northern Virginia health-care providers who plan on utilizing or wish to learn more about the Centering Pregnancy model of prenatal care. Approximately 30 individuals will be served by this project.

Agency: Preemies Today (Chapterwide)
Grant Title Preemies Today Expansion
Grant Amount: $24,500
This grant will enable Preemies Today to hire a part-time Executive Director who will manage and develop existing programs. Efforts will include initiating outreach to women who are at a high risk of premature delivery and promoting the need for prenatal care (such as encouraging women of child-bearing age to take folic acid). A primary emphasis will be on expanding outreach to NICUs in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia through the distribution of Preemie Care.

Agency: Providence Hospital, Center for Life (District of Columbia)
Grant Title: Centering Pregnancy® Expansion
Grant Amount: $18,000
The grant will provide basic training to health-care providers who are interested in implementing the Centering Pregnancy model of prenatal care. Advanced training will be offered to further the skills of providers currently using the model. Approximately 400 individuals will be served by this project during the grant year.

Agency: SIDS Mid-Atlantic (Chapterwide)
Grant Title: Preventing SIDS: Education to Reduce Infant Mortality
Grant Amount: $21,500
This project will educate 1,000 health care providers in Maryland, Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia on safe sleep practices, SIDS, five A’s smoking cessation training, prematurity, preconception health, perinatal substance abuse and other infant health issues in an effort to reduce infant mortality. 

Agency: The University of Maryland Medical System (Baltimore, Md.)
Grant Title: Stork’s Nest
Grant Amount: $18,840
The ultimate goal of this program is to decrease the high infant mortality and preterm birth rates in the West Baltimore community. Stork’s Nest provides incentives to women and their partners to regularly attend prenatal appointments and educational sessions in the University of Maryland Medical System.