News
March of Dimes Grant Awarded to Sutter Health’s Bay Area CenteringPregnancy® Consortium
Grant will fund expansion of three clinics to enhance prenatal care for hundreds of high-risk mothers
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 9, 2007 – The Bay Area CenteringPregnancy® Consortium (BACPC), a collaborative initiative between Sutter Health and the Centering Pregnancy & Parenting Association, Inc., has been awarded a March of Dimes community service grant of nearly $48,000 to help improve maternal and child health for at-risk populations in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. The grant will fund the expansion of services within three existing clinics located in San Francisco and Oakland, and help increase outreach to hundreds of low-income patients.
"The success of our program comes from a solid collaboration with hospitals and clinics, public health departments, community groups like the March of Dimes and others – all committed to the same goal of helping ensure healthy moms and babies," said Elliott Main, M.D., program lead for BACPC at Sutter Health. "This grant will help us advance our important work that aims to improve the quality of birth outcomes and expand our outreach efforts to provide low-income women quality care, pregnancy counseling and life-skills education."
In a supportive environment, BACPC-affiliated clinics serve primarily low-income minority, African American, Native American and recent-immigrant, Spanish-speaking women who are at risk during pregnancy as a result of poverty, cultural or social isolation, and associated medical and social issues. The clinics use the CenteringPregnancy® model, which offers women prenatal care; screenings; and pregnancy, health and nutrition counseling. An innovative and successful part of the program groups mothers with similar due dates in counseling sessions where they can ask questions and share experiences. In many cases, the mothers develop friendships outside the clinics, and informal "mothers groups" begin. These supportive networks help disadvantaged mothers well beyond delivery.
"BACPC is providing a critically important service to expectant mothers who might not otherwise get the care they need, and we have confidence that this grant money will go far in helping the community," said Maria Dayaw, MPH, director of program services for the March of Dimes Bay Area Division.
There are three clinics in the Bay Area that will benefit from the grant:
- San Francisco: Mission Neighborhood Health Center at 240 Shotwell Street
- Oakland: Two at the Alameda County Medical Center at 1411 East 31st Street
- Native American Health Center
- Highland General Hospital Clinic
Contacts
Latara Harris, Bay Area CenteringPregnancy® Consortium, Sutter Health
(415) 296-1811 or harrisl4@sutterhealth.org
Maria Dayaw March of Dimes, California Chapter
(415) 217-6375 or mdayaw@marchofdimes.com
About the Bay Area CenteringPregnancy® Consortium
The Bay Area CenteringPregnancy® Consortium is an initiative of the Sutter Health network of hospitals, physician organizations and other health care service providers in collaboration with Centering Pregnancy & Parenting Association, Inc. and funded by AETNA. It was created to bring together hospitals and clinics, community groups, and public health departments in the Bay Area to help improve perinatal outcomes in disadvantaged communities.