Support for pregnant moms credited for healthier babies
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/11/2010 (5408 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A new study has found that babies have become healthier because of a Manitoba Health program that gives money and nutrition counselling to pregnant, low-income mothers.
The Manitoba Centre for Health Policy reviewed the province’s 10-year-old Healthy Baby program and found that children born to mothers enrolled in the program were healthier than infants whose low-income mothers did not participate — there was a reduction in low birth weight babies and a reduction in premature births.
“Isn’t it common sense, but it doesn’t always happen,” Marni Brownwell, lead researcher for the study said.
The Healthy Baby program is a multi-departmental initiative that began in 2001.
It gave eligible low-income mothers an additional monthly supplement of up to $81 and also provides nutritional counselling to pregnant women.
The study examined all Manitoba births from April 1 2004 to March 31 2008, comparing mothers who were in the program to those who were not.
The study was funded by the province as part of a contract with the Centre for Health Policy, which is a research unit within the University of Manitoba department of community health sciences.
“We found that those moms who (were in the program) were less likely to have low birth weight babies and less likely to have pre-term births and more likely to breast feed than moms who weren’t in the program,” Brownwell said.
Brownwell said the study confirmed what many people believed would be the benefit of the program.
— Staff