Evaluation of the NC Healthy Start Baby Love Plus Program to Address Racial Disparities in the Eastern, Northeastern, and Triad Regions of North Carolina

This project is a partnership between the Sheps Center’s Program on Child Health Services and the NC DHHS Division of Public Health. Since 1996, the Sheps Center team has worked closely with colleagues at the Division of Public Health in the continued development of the enhanced maternity care coordination and outreach program, as well as identifying special areas of concern to improve perinatal health outcomes in some of the poorest counties of our State. The goal of the program is to reduce disparities in infant mortality through strengthening community capacity and enhanced individual perinatal services in Bertie, Edgecombe, Greene, Martin, Pitt, Tyrrell, and Washington counties (East); Gates, Halifax, Hertford, Nash, and Northampton counties (Northeast); and Forsyth and Guilford counties (Triad). We provide information on birth outcomes, use of perinatal health services, associated costs, and consumer satisfaction using primary and secondary data, including vital records, Medicaid claim data, Health Department administrative records, and a series of community surveys. The combined effort of the Sheps Center and NC Division of Public Health’s Baby Love Plus Program has resulted in over $14 million in federal awards from the Maternal and Child Bureau, HRSA, DHHS.

Principal Investigators: Milton Kotelchuck, Ph.D. (97-01) and Julia L. DeClerque, Dr.P.H. (since 01)

Funding Source: Maternal and Child Health Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (subcontract with N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, Women’s and Children’s Health Section)

Project Period: 12/97 – 05/31/15 (could get extension)