MVHC to offer program combating infant mortality

ZANESVILLE – Muskingum Valley Health Centers will soon offer a state-funded program to help combat infant mortality in the state.

A grant from the Ohio Department of Health will pay to pilot what is called the Centering Pregnancy health care delivery model at MVHC locations in Muskingum, Coshocton, Morgan and, starting in September, Guernsey counties.

The program focuses on providing prenatal care and services to groups of women in the same gestational age group in order to avoid premature births, low birth weight and other factors contributing to infant deaths.

MVHC is one of four federally qualified health centers receiving a portion of a $900,000 grant from the state. Ten health centers around the state applied.

Ohio has one of the five worst infant mortality rates in the country, with nearly eight deaths before a child’s first birthday per 1,000 live births, compared to about six nationally.

Muskingum, Coshocton and Guernsey counties all have 10-year average annual infant mortality rates higher than the national average, according to data released Monday by ODH.

Ohio’s Appalachian counties have some of the worst infant mortality rates in the state, but the other health centers receiving grant money are in Columbus, Dayton and Toledo. MVHC is the only operation in a large Appalachian region of the state that will provide the Centering Pregnancy model in the program’s pilot year.

State Sen. Troy Balderson, R-Zanesville, said this gives Muskingum County the chance to lead the region in the state’s effort to lower its infant mortality rate.

Under the Centering Pregnancy model, groups of eight to 12 women meet 10 times over the course of their pregnancies to engage in discussion about healthy pregnancy and proper self-care. The goal is to create a support network of medical professionals as well as other mothers to carry women to healthy, full-term pregnancies.

Program objectives include increasing breastfeeding rates, reducing low birth weights, achieving full term pregnancies, and increasing early entry to prenatal care among other things.

The grant comes from money allocated in Gov. John Kasich’s two-year state budget to combat infant mortality. The funding will support the program in the four test centers for two years.

Based on achievement of certain objectives, the state could choose to provide additional funding or expand the program in the next budget. ODH Director Rick Hodges said this reflects the state’s changing attitude on where it directs its money.

“We are shifting to contracts that reward performance,” Hodges said.