News Release
Blue Cross Blue Shield Funds $637,000 to Vanderbilt's Better Birth Outcomes Project (12/12/08)
Nashville, TN -- Blue Cross Blue Shield executives will present a check for $637,000 to Tennessee Better Birth Outcomes, a collaborative project with the Vanderbilt University Schools of Nursing and Medicine as well as Nurses for Newborns, a non-profit nurse visitation program serving at-risk mothers and babies.
The Blue Cross Blue Shield funds will support year three of the randomized clinical trial studying high-risk pregnant women from early pregnancy through postpartum. The goal is to decrease the number of premature births in Tennessee, which nationally ranks 48th in infant mortality and 47th in preterm births.
There are 126 pregnant women in the program with a capacity for 300. Staff collects information from these women at multiple points during their pregnancy and postpartum period. Nurse interventionists conduct home visits up to 90 miles from Vanderbilt. Preliminary analysis points to this process as a promising model of care.