Announcement

January 2, 2006

For Immediate Release
For More Information, contact
Molly Kaser
517/784-3950

Center for Family Health Cuts Low Birthweight Rate by Half

For the third straight year, the Center for Family Health has seen a dramatic decline in the number of low birthweight babies born to women who have received their prenatal care at CFH.  Since 2003, the Center for Family Health has gone from a rate of 128.6 low birthweight babies/1000 births to a rate of 62.8/1000 babies – a decrease of almost 50%.

“This is great news.”  Molly Kaser, Executive Director for the Center for Family Health says CFH is part of a community initiative to look at the factors that increase the likelihood of low birthweight.  “In the past few years, we have really stepped up our efforts to ensure that women who are pregnant and are uninsured or underinsured know we can help.  In addition to these outreach efforts, we have a caring, welcoming staff.”

The latest state numbers indicate that 1 in every 12 babies was low birthweight.  

Women who do not receive prenatal care, or receive prenatal care late in their pregnancy are more likely to deliver a low birthweight baby.  The percent of women in Jackson who receive late or no prenatal care has increased in the past ten years.  According to the Jackson County Community Report Card, statistics indicate that Jackson had 15% fewer women receiving prenatal care in their first trimester than the statewide average.
In addition, women who smoke, drink or use drugs are also at higher risk of delivering a low birthweight baby.

Low birthweight is a factor in 65 percent of infant deaths. Low birthweight babies may face serious health problems as newborns, and are at increased risk of long-term disabilities.

The Center for Family Health received a grant to implement a smoking cessation program and we believe these increased efforts have had a positive effect on our birthweight rate.

This graph tracks the low birthweight rate per 1,000 births for CFH, Jackson County and the State of Michigan.  This graph shows we are making progress! 
“We believe there are several factors that are helping to improve our low birthweight numbers including the smoking cessation program targeting pregnant women, our OB Outreach and advocacy efforts resulting in more women in care and especially our OB/Gyn providers and staff,” Kaser explained.
Dr. James Williams, one of the Obstetricians on staff helps identify why CFH is seeing the success in our birthweight numbers.  “We take a proactive policy regarding our patient's needs, so that issues of finance, transportation, domestic violence, high risk pregnancy, prenatal outreach, neonatal services, translators, social service issues can all be accessed at one convenient location.”
Pete May, Support Services Manager, agrees with Dr. Williams, “Our entire agency has worked as a cohesive team for quite some time now, striving to make a positive impact on low birth-rate weights.  It is very rewarding to see the persistent effort of our staff resulting in healthier outcomes for newborns over the past three years.”

“It is gratifying to see progress and improvement in our efforts to deliver healthy babies,” Dr. Williams explains.  “I take personal pleasure in knowing that we have a system that can erase the negatives that come with poverty and obtain results that are as good as or better than anywhere in the state!”   

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