Lane County Taking Over PeaceHealth Prenatal Clinic

As of Feb 1, services currently offered at the PeaceHealth Prenatal Clinic will be transferred to the Lane County Charnelton Community Clinic at 151 W. 7th Avenue.

Lane County is joining six other counties to provide prenatal care for women who would be OHP-eligible except for immigration status. This new coverage expands the “Citizen / Alien Waived Emergency Medical” (CAWEM) and is made possible through the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). CHIP allows states to serve the unborn children of women who would be Medicaid(OHP)-eligible except for immigration status. Learn more at MotherBaby Network. 

Long before CAWEM Plus, PeaceHealth undertook and underwrote maternity services through its Prenatal Clinic. The same Certified Nurse-Midwives who staff the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center staffed the Prenatal Clinic. The Prenatal Clinic ensured pregnant women, regardless of immigration status and/or ability to pay, received the excellent, continuous midwifery care associated with positive birth outcomes. Services included prenatal care, birth attendance, lactation support, postpartum care, well-woman visits and birth control.

CAWEM Plus expansion into Lane County prompted Public Health and PeaceHealth to negotiate the transfer of the Prental Clinic services to the Charnelton Community  Clinic. Lane County will contract with PeaceHealth to have Prenatal Clinic midwives and staff continue providing maternity services at the community clinic.

Births will continue to occur at RiverBend. PeaceHealth obstetricians will continue to collaborate with the midwives. While the six-week post-partum appointment will still be available, coverage for the mother ends with the conclusion of her pregnancy. Newborns will be enrolled in OHP Plus for one year of automatic eligibility.

As we understand it, CAWEM Plus does not cover birth control but there are other accessible programs available to women who desire it. We do not know the degree to which lactation support will be available.  

Friends of the Birth Center has followed the status of the Prenatal Clinic with great concern. We are pleased that the Prenatal Clinic midwives and staff will continue providing quality, continuous midwifery care that many of the most vulnerable women and babies in our community have come to trust and rely on. We hope this care will continue to include lactation support.

100+ Lane Co. Families Credit Baby Friendly Evidence-Based Breastfeeding Services

Press Release / For Immediate Release

Eugene, OR – January 18, 2011 – Lane County Friends of the Birth Center (LaneCoFBC) is publicizing results from a recent survey conducted during World Breastfeeding Week 2010. More than 100 local women and families describe the positive experiences they consistently have with breastfeeding services at the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth Center – one of only four Oregon-designated providers of evidence-based care by the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative. Demonstrating the connection between evidence-based services and consumer satisfaction, LaneCoFBC intends the survey to encourage all Lane County hospitals to achieve the Baby Friendly designation.

Using the survey, women and families describe the critical role evidence-based breastfeeding services play in supporting mothers and babies to establish and maintain breastfeeding. Powerful personal testimonials are offered throughout. They touch on specific breastfeeding challenges, observations about breastfeeding generally and the value of learning in an environment equipped to support their choice. Having ongoing, drop-in access to lactation experts and the opportunity to regularly connect with other families comes up frequently. 

Access LaneCoFBC Breastfeeding Survey

Baby-Friendly facilities move beyond slogans to ensure all women receive the evidence-based care known to promote and protect breastfeeding. They have codified policies requiring all staff, from nurses’ aides to doctors and midwives, who are in contact with mothers be trained to assess and support initiation. Proper training empowers staff to help mothers and babies resolve common breastfeeding complications before they threaten breastfeeding initiation. Less-common breastfeeding problems are referred to lactation consultants. Women and families learn about breastfeeding during pregnancy, receive 24-hour lactation support and access to on-going, non-emergency expert and peer support during postpartum. Women and families can be confident of quality breastfeeding support when they see the Baby-Friendly seal of approval on hospital or birth center literature.

Consumers are not alone in connecting facility-based practices with breastfeeding outcomes following discharge. Legislators, government agencies, the business community and hospital accreditation bodies have made the same connection and increasingly call for better services as the best route towards realizing the complex, far reaching benefits of breastfeeding. Benefits include better long-term health outcomes for women and children – including reduced rates of childhood obesity – and reduced costs for employers. The following organizations support Baby Friendly care or use its language, reflecting the growing consensus around increasing evidence-based breastfeeding care.

• The Joint Commission – the leading hospital accreditation body – issued a new perinatal care core measure set including exclusive breast milk feeding  
• The CDC’s latest Breastfeeding Report Card highlights growth of Baby Friendly hospitals  
• Healthy People 2020 calls for increasing the percentage of Baby Friendly Hospitals to 8% (news coverage)  
• The White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Report includes several Baby Friendly recommendations as a key factor in early childhood obesity prevention  
• The Breastfeeding Coalition of Oregon just launched OR Hospitals Partnering for Evidence-Based Infant Nutrition

 

With the release of the survey results, LaneCoFBC adds the voices of women, families and community supporters to encourage local hospitals to become Baby Friendly designated facilities. LaneCoFBC is pleased to put hospital leaders, community organizations and media outlets in touch with local women and families interested in sharing their experience with Baby Friendly care. 

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Media Contact: Katharine Gallagher

Phone: (541) 221-8892

Email: lanecofbc@gmail.com
Blog: http://www.lanecofbc.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lanecofbc
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lanecofbc

Cupakes for Haiti

Lane County Friends of the Birth Center is pleased to be a community partner for the "Cupcakes for Haiti" event honoring the one-year anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti and the ongoing needs there. The Divine Cupcake will donate 20% of sales on January 12, 2011 to  the Haitian Health Foundation.     

Following is the event press release - spread the word and head on over to The Divine Cupcake on January 12th!

News Release 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 3, 2011        

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Kathy Lynn, kathy_lynn1@yahoo.com,  (541) 206-3281
 

Cupcakes for Haiti

EUGENE, Ore. – In recognition of the one-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti and the ongoing needs that still exist, The Divine Cupcake, Eugene’s organic and vegan cupcakery, will donate 20% of sales from cupcakes on January 12, 2011 to the Haitian Health Foundation (http://www.haitianhealthfoundation.org/.)   

The Haitian government reported that as a result of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake on January 12, 2010, an estimated 230,000 people died, 300,000 were injured and 1,000,000 people became homeless. The Haitian Government also estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged. Since the earthquake, relief and redevelopment efforts have been hampered by the poverty and lack of governance that has plagued the country for two centuries.

Numerous tropical storms and hurricanes have resulted in heavy rains and floods that have most critically affected the hundreds of thousands of people still living in tent cities. Most recently, an outbreak of cholera has already killed over 2100 people. Officials expect that the number of fatalities will continue to rise, and that it may take six months to a year to control the cholera outbreak.

After the January 2010 earthquake, hundreds of thousands of people left Port-au-Prince for more rural areas of the country. Since that time, the Haitian Health Foundation, located on the southern peninsula in the town of Jérémie, has begun providing health care for an additional 100,000 people. In addition to the city of Jérémie, HHF provides support to over 100 rural mountain villages and now serves over 300,000 people. HHF is proud of an overhead of less than 8 cents per donated dollar, with over 92 percent of funds collected going directly to services for the poor.

Eugenian and former Peace Corps volunteer Kathy Lynn is coordinating this event with Divine Cupcakes to keep Haiti in the hearts and minds of people throughout Lane County.

“In these difficult economic times, it isn’t easy to continue to donate money. And yet the people of Haiti still need basic resources for public health, shelter and food.”

Money raised at Divine Cupcakes on January 12 will specifically be directed to HHF’s Center of Hope, a residential treatment facility for at-risk pregnant women and severely malnourished children in rural Haiti.

Community partners are helping to publicize the event and increase awareness of the critical needs still facing the Haitian people a year after the devastating earthquake. Community partners include the Lane County Friends of the Birth Center (http://lanecofbc.blogspot.com/).

For more information about the event, visit: http://www.facebook.com/events/create.php?eid=181502151876572#!/event.php?eid=181502151876572