Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #104865

Belinda K. Rogers, CIMI, CD(DONA)¹, Elizabeth Riggs, MPH², and Sabine Jean-Walker, MA². (1) Oklahoma State Chapter, March of Dimes, 5100 N. Brookline, Suite 270, Oklahoma City, OK 73112, 405-943-1025, brogers@marchofdimes.com, (2) National Office, March of Dimes, 1275 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY 10605

In 2001, the infant mortality rate in Oklahoma was 8.4 per 1000 live births, over 17% higher than the US rate. While other states continued to improve rates of prenatal care in the first trimester, one-in-five women in Oklahoma did not receive any prenatal care during their first trimester. Moreover, although Medicaid covered over half of the births during this time, data showed that in fewer than half of these births did the mothers receive the recommended amount of prenatal care.

In an effort to increase the access to prenatal care among low-income pregnant women in Oklahoma, the March of Dimes and the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy initiated the Healthy Beginnings Campaign (HBC) in 2002. Building upon the Covering Kids Partnership model, the three-year project expanded current efforts to reach children to focus on assisting pregnant women to access care and increasing awareness of resources. Seven pilot sites were selected based on their county birthrate ranking and ability to serve racially diverse populations. After the loss of government outreach workers due to budget shortages, community based workers were trained to educate and enroll pregnant women into Oklahoma's Medicaid program, SoonerCare.

To date, HBC has trained over 1,300 individuals and over 300 organizations on SoonerCare outreach and enrollment activities. In addition, nearly 15,000 pregnant women have enrolled into the SoonerCare program.

This presentation will include discussion of the project's successes and challenges in reaching high-risk women as well as share results and lessons learned in increasing access to care.

Learning Objectives:

• Detail successes and challenges encountered in reaching high-risk women.
• Discuss the impact on increasing access to care.
• Describe the role community outreach workers played after the Department of Human Service's staff reductions.

Keywords: Access to Health Care, Prenatal Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation