Prenatal Needs of the Population of Tennessee - Essay Example

"Prenatal Needs of the Population of Tennessee" is a great example of a paper on health services. I am the representative of Tennessee Speak for the Mother Healthcare services in Tennessee. The organization aims at providing prenatal healthcare services to mothers combining it with health promotion, risk assessment, psychological or medical intervention measures.             The organization attends to the prenatal needs of the population of Tennessee.

Researchers attest to the many benefits that accrue from prenatal care. The Tennessee Speak for the Mother Healthcare service focuses on availing group prenatal care to all women in Tennessee. The benefits of this mechanism include high birth weight, long gestational period, and desirable birth outcomes. Strong (2000) asserts that group prenatal care has benefits that surmount the limitations of the individual prenatal care. Besides the above-mentioned benefits, this service helps reduce the prevalence of child mortality.

Lauck (2000) observed that relative to individual care, group care appeals to the administrators of healthcare because it is cost-effective. The method can add the gestational period by one-third of weeks and increases birth weight by up to 29 grams.             The organization chooses to use the CenterPregnancy method that incorporates health risk assessment, health promotion, and group support sessions. The rationale for the use of the CenterPregnancy method is the fact that supportive environments increase the happiness and desirable outcomes of pregnant women.

Quality interaction amongst pregnant women and between and prenatal caregivers improve the social support and desirable health behaviors in pregnant women. Handler et al (2011) moved that prenatal care done in groups increases the likelihood of women breastfeeding even after discharge from the hospital.             There are things that policymakers can do something about with regard to matters of prenatal care. Even so, there are matters of prenatal care that transcend the jurisdiction of policymakers and invite the services of organizations such as Speak for Mother Healthcare.

Flitzpatrick et al (2004) enlist these matters including the height as wells as the weight of women at the onset of pregnancy. Others include a pregnant mother’s obstetric history, marital status, ethnicity, and hereditary genetic conditions. There are environmental considerations that have an impact on a newborn’s health. These include exposure to STIs, the level of blood sugar, and pregnant woman’s blood pressure.             Early interventions help give out good results and as such, maternal healthcare throughout the gestational period is crucial.

The rise in the awareness of the importance of prenatal care to infant health has important implications for policymakers. Weimer (2009) reckoned that the expansion of prenatal care improves infant health. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend prenatal care to start in the first three months of pregnancy. After the first three months, the college advises pregnant women to attend prenatal checkups every four weeks. This continues until the twenty-eighth week after which visits come to once every two weeks.

            A closer look into why pregnant women who rely on Medicaid report lower prenatal care than those that use private health insurance reveals a number of factors. The factors include the long time taken by the Medicaid recruitment process and the tedious waits for the clinic. There exist attitudes that do not favor prenatal care and a general lack of prenatal care information. This underscores the point of origin of Speak for Mother Healthcare.

It seeks to put a center that provides prenatal care even to the poor. As such, Speak for Mother Healthcare needs about $3.4 million to put up structures. The required equipment needs $4 million and a physician’s annual salary of $201, 000. The nurse needs a salary of $105,000 and the project may take two and a half years before reaching regeneration.             The program needs $7,706, 000 to start, and this will help cut on Medicaid’s expenditure on prenatal care of $44.3 million. It would also help cut on the individual direct expenses due to avoidable pregnancy complications that account for up to $443 million per annum.

Speak for Mother Healthcare is ready to avail of a complete proposal with extensive information for review. Sincerely,