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Press Release
| Women & Infants Participates in CDC's Show Your Love Campaign |
| 02/15/2013 |
Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island is participating in Show Your Love, a new national campaign developed by the Preconception Health and Health Care Initiative (PHHCI) of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to help women prepare for healthy pregnancies. Launched on Valentine’s Day, the campaign’s message points out that if a woman chooses to have a child, she can “show love” for her child by first loving herself through the adoption of healthy habits well before becoming pregnant.
According to the CDC, preconception health is the health of women and men during their reproductive years. For women, preconception health focuses on taking important steps now to protect their health and the health of the family they may want to have sometime in the future. These steps include working with their health care providers to control and treat such medical conditions as diabetes and high blood pressure, quitting smoking, drinking less alcohol, becoming physically active, and making healthy food choices.
“While most women know that improving their health once they become pregnant is important, many women don’t know that improving their health before pregnancy – even long before it’s a consideration – is also important for the health of a mother-to-be and her baby,” said Maureen, G. Phipps, MD, MPH, interim chief and vice chair for research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island and associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and epidemiology at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
As part of the Show Your Love campaign, the PHCCI has developed a series of educational materials for women including video and radio public service announcements, posters, and a checklist of healthy habits. Women & Infants Hospital is working with the PHHCI to spread the campaign’s message and materials to women nationwide, and information is available at womenandinfants.org/showyourlove.
The Show Your Love campaign focuses on women during their childbearing years, between the ages of 18 and 44. The campaign is designed to speak to women who are currently planning to become pregnant, as well as those for whom pregnancy may not be in their immediate plans.
Dr. Phipps said, “Our goal is to ensure that every woman who hopes to become a mom one day understands the importance of preconception health. By taking steps to improve her health before pregnancy, a woman will be her very best self. And for those women who aren’t sure about starting a family, our message is that they should be healthy and take care of themselves so that they are able to achieve their goals and dreams.”
For more information on the Show Your Love campaign visit the website at www.cdc.gov/showyourlove.
About the Preconception Health and Health Care Initiative (PHHCI)
The PHHCI is focused on promoting healthy habits among women of childbearing age. Members represent national, state, and local organizations, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), March of Dimes Foundation, National Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition, the National Healthy Start Association, state health departments, and local affiliates of national organizations.
About Women & Infants Hospital
Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation’s leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns. The primary teaching affiliate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University for obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics, as well as a number of specialized programs in women’s medicine, Women & Infants is the eighth largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the country with nearly 8,400 deliveries per year.
In 2009, Women & Infants opened what was at the time the country’s largest, single-family room neonatal intensive care unit. New England’s premier hospital for women and newborns, Women & Infants and Brown offer fellowship programs in gynecologic oncology, maternal-fetal medicine, urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery, neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric and perinatal pathology, gynecologic pathology and cytopathology, breast disease, and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. It is home to the nation’s only mother-baby perinatal psychiatric partial hospital, as well as the nation’s only fellowship program in obstetric medicine.
Women & Infants has been designated as a Breast Center of Excellence from the American College of Radiography; a Center for In Vitro Maturation Excellence by SAGE In Vitro Fertilization; a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence by the National Institutes of Health; a National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers through the American College of Surgeons; and a Neonatal Resource Services Center of Excellence. It is one of the largest and most prestigious research facilities in high risk and normal obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics in the nation, and is a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Gynecologic Oncology Group and the National Institutes of Health’s Pelvic Floor Disorders Network.
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