| The South Carolina Chapter of the March of Dimes hosted an Awards Reception honoring their 2008 Grantees at Brookland Banquet & Conference Center in Columbia on Tuesday, January 29. More than $600,000 in chapter community grants were presented to grantees for projects focused on improving the health of mothers and babies in South Carolina. This event was sponsored by the SC Chapters of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
Palmetto Health Foundation/ Perinatal Systems is receiving $40,000 to continue improving women’s health both before and after pregnancy. This project offers individualized inter-conception counseling to postpartum women who have experienced a previous miscarriage, preterm birth, or infant death. Outreach and resources materials have been created and will be reproduced for statewide distribution to physicians and healthcare professionals. The Parents of Preemies Group, also included in this project, reaches parents who have a premature baby and women on bed rest; helping them to understand how to care for their infant and how to make subsequent pregnancies as healthy as possible. This grant is given in honor of Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, a corporate partner for the 2008 Prematurity Campaign.
The University Of South Carolina’s Research Foundation is receiving $25,000 to implement Centering Pregnancy for Latino women and teens. Centering Pregnancy is a group model approach to prenatal care, proven to decrease poor outcomes by providing support, education and socialization. Expectant mothers have been noted to experience less stress, less adverse prenatal and birth outcomes, less substance abuse and better progress in labor using this model. Led by Dr. Debra Woda, providers at Palmetto Health Women’s Center will provide this new model of prenatal care in an effort to improve birth outcomes and enhancing education and support to women in the Midlands area.
The Nurturing Center is receiving $18,285 to provide enhanced preconception and prenatal education to pregnant and parenting teen mothers in conjunction with its Teen Parenting program, which focuses on promoting healthy parent-child interaction. This project will compliment the Teen Parenting Program by providing further education and support to pregnant and parenting teens on adequate prenatal care for current and future pregnancies.
Palmetto Health Foundation is receiving $60,000 to continue support of the Latino Perinatal Outreach Program. The program targets Hispanic/ Latino women in the Midlands area providing prenatal classes in Spanish, support services, education for the risk reduction of preterm labor, and follow-up support. “The Midland is experiencing rapid group among the Hispanic Community and in the past two years this project has reached hundreds of women in the Hispanic Community of the Midlands. Providing women with education and support they would not otherwise have access to,” says Jessica Mullen, Director of Program Services for March of Dimes SC Chapter. The project’s coordinator, Julie Smithwick-Leone, is considered an expert on Hispanic/Latino outreach efforts and has provides consultation for other programs around the state.
This year, 22 grantees received funding from the March of Dimes South Carolina Chapter. Statewide grants that will also reach the Midlands region include a project with SC DHEC Maternal and Child Health Prenatal Systems to conduct a safe sleep educational campaign “Give Your Baby Room to Breath” focused on promoting safe/healthy sleeping habits. The SC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy will provide professional education and technical support to five clinics statewide to increase access and utilization of teen health services in Aiken, Spartanburg, Lexington and Williamsburg Counties. The South Carolina Tobacco Collaborative will provide smoking cessation education for pre-natal healthcare providers, and to establish a referral system for linking patients with appropriate smoking cessation resources. Another statewide partnership with the South Carolina Perinatal Association will support joint education for health professionals about maternal and infant health-related issues.
Select Health of South Carolina, Inc. is the Premier partner of the March of Dimes Prematurity Campaign. Additional partners include BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, and Palmetto Health.
Last year, the South Carolina March of Dimes invested more than $4.2 million in program services, including research grants and local community services. Through these grants, the March of Dimes is seeking ways to prevent birth defects and infant death, reduce South Carolina’s increasing premature birth rate, increase access to prenatal care and educate men and women about having healthy babies.
The March of Dimes is the leading nonprofit organization for pregnancy and baby health. With chapters nationwide and its premier event, March for Babies, the March of Dimes works to improve the health of babies. For the latest resources and information visit marchofdimes.com or nacersano.org.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PHOTOS FROM THE AWARDS RECEPTION EVENT |
