Poster

Promoting healthy minds, bodies, and communities are important in improving pregnancy outcomes. This poster session will explore factors involved in promoting maternal mental and physical health through community-based support programs. Among others, studies on the effects of communities offering preconception health counseling, an innovative program to provide emergency obstetrical services in India, community-based efforts to decrease the percentage of low birth-weight infants, and incentive-based programs to promote prenatal care and prenatal risk screening will be presented. Different models of prenatal care will be compared. State-level intervention programs such as Milwaukee-based home visitation program and Florida Healthy Start will share strengths and limitations in promoting positive pregnancy experiences and prenatal care access.

Session Objectives: 1) Identify individual and communal factors affecting mental and physical health during pregnancy. 2) Discuss the strengths and limitations of these different intervention programs.