Vanderbilt University, United Health Foundation and Yale University are
inviting pregnant women to participate in a new model of prenatal care
delivered in a group and designed to improve mothers’ and babies’ health
and well-being during pregnancy, birth and infancy. Initial participants
are invited to join a study that will evaluate the model and each
mother’s experience with group prenatal care.
Expect With Me offers prenatal care based on clinical guidelines from
the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the
American College of Nurse Midwives. The care is delivered to pregnant
women in a group setting, providing valuable social and emotional
support in addition to standard prenatal care, education and skills to
maximize the health of mothers and their families.
While expecting mothers typically spend 10-20 minutes with their doctors
at each visit in traditional prenatal care, Expect With Me features 10
two-hour care sessions during the second and third trimesters, with the
first few sessions held one month apart, moving to biweekly care later
in the pregnancy. Each care session includes a physical assessment by a
health care provider, an evaluation of the mother’s and baby’s vital
signs, and a group education, skills-building and discussion session.
Expect With Me includes a secure web portal and social networking
features that enable expectant mothers to stay connected between care
sessions and have access to a strong support network. Incentives, gaming
and videos will help patients engage, follow care recommendations and
promote better health among mothers and babies.
This model of care will provide more than 1,000 women ages 14 and older
with medical care from a physician or midwife and educational
information on having a healthy pregnancy. Participants also benefit
from peer support from other expecting mothers who participate in the
group sessions. Expect With Me aims to enroll at least 400 women in the
pilot in Nashville.
“Expect With Me – in addition to providing vital, evidence-based medical
care for expectant mothers – is designed to help women access reliable
information about their pregnancy and benefit from social and emotional
support so they are better prepared to take control of their health and
the health of their babies,” said Kate Rubin, United Health Foundation
president. “Our goal in piloting this new prenatal care model is to
improve the health of mothers and babies, and to improve perinatal
health outcomes and reduce incidences of low birth weight and preterm
birth.”
Expect With Me is open to all women. The group prenatal care model is
aimed at women in their first trimester; however, participants may
enroll up to 24 weeks into their pregnancy. Commercial insurance,
Medicaid or TennCare will cover Expect With Me as they would any other
prenatal care. United Health Foundation is currently launching and
studying Expect With Me in Nashville, Detroit, MI. and McAllen, TX.
Yale University created Expect With Me in partnership with Vanderbilt
University and United Health Foundation, with additional in-kind support
from UnitedHealth Group and the UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform &
Modernization.
“Expect With Me values creativity, innovation and a commitment to always
doing what is right for expectant moms and their families,” said Deborah
Wage, MSN,FNP,CNM, Assistant Professor, Director of Group Prenatal Care,
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Vanderbilt School of
Medicine. “Expect With Me is a result of those values – a group care
model meeting the needs of women using high-tech, social, web-based
tools and the low-tech benefits of support and empowerment from the
group. Vanderbilt is proud to be a part of this innovation.”
“Our team at Yale is pleased to work with United Health Foundation and
our clinical partners to critically evaluate the impact of the pilot,”
said Jeannette Ickovics, Ph.D., professor, Yale School of Public Health.
“Our hope is that Expect With Me will be a model for a nationally
scalable method of care that works with community-engaged organizations
and health care partners to meet the ‘triple aim’: better care, better
outcomes and reduced cost for prenatal and postpartum care.”
Addressing Preterm Birth and Improving Mothers’ and Babies’ Health
The design and delivery of Expect With Me is based on evidence from two
National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded studies that found that
prenatal care delivered in a group setting was associated with fewer
preterm births, reduced incidence of infants who are small for their
gestational age, and shorter neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) stays
after birth when needed.
Most babies born in the United States thrive; however, according to
United Health Foundation’s America’s Health Rankings®, six out of
every 1,000 babies die during their first year of life, due largely to
maternal complications during pregnancy, premature birth, birth defects
and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). According to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 12 percent of all births in
the United States are preterm – or prior to 37 weeks gestation – placing
babies at risk for complications, illness and death. While race,
ethnicity, income and age affect pregnancy-related health outcomes,
research shows that quality prenatal care and healthy lifestyle choices
among women before, during and following pregnancy can help reduce
infant mortality among babies born preterm.
In addition, preterm births are costly, accounting for more than
one-third of all U.S. health care spending for infants. According to the
Institute of Medicine, preterm births in the United States cost more
than $26 billion a year – or $51,000 per infant – which is 10 times
higher than the medical costs associated with a baby born at full-term.
Adverse pregnancy- and birth-related health outcomes also are
significant cost drivers.
Community-based and prevention-focused programs such as Expect With Me
that work to improve the emotional, social and clinical well-being of
mothers and infants have the potential to reduce health care spending in
the United States by billions of dollars per year.
About United Health Foundation
Guided
by a passion to help people live healthier lives, United Health
Foundation provides helpful information to support decisions that lead
to better health outcomes and healthier communities. The Foundation also
supports activities that expand access to quality health care services
for those in challenging circumstances and partners with others to
improve the wellbeing of communities. Since established by UnitedHealth
Group [NYSE: UNH] in 1999 as a not-for-profit, private foundation, the
Foundation has committed more than $210 million to improve health and
health care. For more information, visit www.unitedhealthfoundation.org.
About Yale
Yale University, a
pre-eminent global university founded in New Haven, Connecticut in 1701,
consists of three major academic components: Yale College, for
undergraduate liberal arts; the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,
offering advanced degrees in 73 departments and programs; and the
13 professional schools. In addition, the campus boasts an array
of centers and programs, libraries, museums, and research facilities.
Yale’s mission to create, preserve, and disseminate knowledge is
manifest in its world-class faculty and staff, outstanding student body,
and dedicated alumni around the world. For over 300 years, Yale has been
committed to developing leaders in service to society.
About Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt
University is a private, non-sectarian, internationally recognized
research university in Nashville, Tenn., with almost 13,000 students
from all 50 states and more than 100 countries. Its 330-acre campus
includes four undergraduate and six graduate schools, a respected
medical center and the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center. Vanderbilt
is ranked 17th among national universities by U.S. News & World
Report, and its School of Medicine is ranked 9th in the
nation for NIH funding. Vanderbilt University Medical Center is home to
the region’s only Level I Trauma Center and Level IV Neonatal Intensive
Care Unit. With more than 3,600 full-time faculty and more than 25,000
staff members, Vanderbilt is the largest private employer in Middle
Tennessee and the state’s second largest Tennessee-based private
employer.
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Copyright Business Wire 2014