New funding will help expand prenatal care program in Guilford County

A Guilford County non-profit will distribute nearly $70,000 to help expand access to a prenatal care program in the region. 

The organization Every Baby Guilford received the funding from the Duke Endowment to increase access to CenteringPregnancy, a program that has been operating for 13 years.

CenteringPregnancy expands the amount of time women spend with their birthing providers and offers information on all stages of pregnancy and infant care.

A portion of the funding will allow the Guilford County Department of Health and Human Services to renovate their existing program space, provide training for new staff, and purchase materials.

Cone Health's MedCenter for Women will receive funding to implement a CenteringPregnancy program later this year.

Jean Workman is the executive director of Every Baby Guilford. She says one goal of the CenteringPregnancy initiative is to reduce disparities in access to prenatal care in the county. 

"In Guilford County for every one white baby that dies, three black babies die, and we see this disparity as something that has got to be tackled so that we eventually eliminate those disparity rates," Workman says. 

Workman adds that her organization's near-term goal is to reduce infant mortality rates by 50 percent by 2026.