JOINING IN THE FIGHT FOR THE HEALTH OF ALL MOMS AND BABIES IN SOUTHSIDE VIRGINIA

March of Dimes Virginia has awarded a grant to CMH Women’s Health Services, a practice of VCU Health Community Memorial Hospital, to support Centering Pregnancy Group Prenatal Care, aimed at serving maternal and child health needs here in Southside Virginia. This program will serve pregnant women in our area by providing prenatal care in a group setting that facilitates interaction and discussion and allows women to be more involved in their care. Centering Pregnancy has been shown to have an array of benefits for moms who participate, including lowering the occurrence of preterm birth and low birth weights.

 This grant is one of many that March of Dimes awards in pursuit of its mission to lead the fight for the health of all moms and babies.  This grant is made possible through a partnership with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation.

“We will use the March of Dimes grant to help meet our objective to expand our Centering program, which allows us to offer quality group prenatal care to expecting moms in our area,” said Terry Wootten, Certified Nurse Midwife at CMH Women’s Health Services.  “We are grateful to those in our community who support March of Dimes by participating in events like March for Babies and who donate in other ways.  That participation and those donations make this grant possible,” she said.

CMH Women’s Health Services reinstated the CenteringPregnancy program in January of 2017. In November of that same year, we moved to a brand new hospital with a Labor and Delivery unit and, since then, have delivered more than 170 babies. It is our goal to provide the women in our area with the support they need to have a healthy pregnancy and birth experience.