Date - June 19, 2007
Educational Topic - Planning for Life: The Importance of Preconception Health & Health Care
Location - The Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home

The Lower Hudson Valley Perinatal Network (LHVPN) hosted another successful education & networking conference, Planning for Life: The Importance of Preconception Health & Health Care on June 19, 2007 at The Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home in Hyde Park, NY (Dutchess County).  The conference served to inform professionals about the CDC recommendations regarding preconception health and health care and create action items for each county to implement the strategies shared at the conference.

The meeting opened with greetings from the Dutchess County Commissioner of Health, Michael M. Caldwell, MD, MPH, the director of the Henry A. Wallace Center, and Cheryl Hunter-Grant, LMSW, executive director of the LHVPN.

Following the greetings, Ms. Hunter-Grant facilitated a dialogue among attendees regarding LHVPN membership, goals, and action items for the future. She presented LHVPN 10-year perinatal trend data by county and race and ethnicity for 1995-2004.

The keynote speakers for the conference were Peter Bernstein, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology and Women's Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and maternal-fetal medicine specialist and Ashlesha Dayal, MD, Associate Director of Undergraduate Medical Education and Assistant Professor in the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Women's Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.  Dr. Bernstein spoke to Preconception Care for the Primary Care Provider.

He asserted that preconception care may be the most important part of prenatal care, yet according to a Healthy People 2000 report, only 20-25% of primary care providers routinely provide it.  He also described the need for preconception care, its components, and how it could help to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes. Dr. Dayal's talk was titled Preconception Care and Maternal Mortality: How to Save a Life. She outlined maternal mortality trends both domestically and internationally, and described how the implementation of preconception care as routine practice could help to reduce these rates.  Both presenters discussed how critical it is that women are counseled regarding their substance use prior to becoming pregnant to avoid adverse birth outcomes associated with substance abuse.

The conference culminated in county roundtable discussions.  Using the CDC recommendations in the MMWR report on Preconception Care, each county was asked to identify activities they could implement or are already implementing targeting the following preconception risk factors: diabetes (preconception), folic acid deficiency, obesity, and smoking.  Representatives from each county were asked to sign an action items agreement stating what the activity would be, and how and by when it would be implemented. This was a productive session during which health care and human service providers in each county could share ideas and encourage each other in their current efforts to improve perinatal health in our region.

Conference evaluation analysis reflected that 100% of respondents felt that the conference did a good (30%) to excellent (70%) job of relating the objectives of the conference to the overall purpose; 100%  felt that Dr. Peter Bernstein possessed good (20%) to excellent (80%) expertise on the topic; All of the respondents  felt that Dr. Ashlesha Dayal possessed good (16%) to excellent (84%) expertise on the topic; and all of the respondents  felt that overall the program was good (20%) to excellent (80%). 

The LHVPN looks forward to the Regional Perinatal Forum (RPF) Annual Conference, Improving Perinatal Health: Enhancing Families' Access to Care and Insurance Coverage, on October 25, 2007 at the Westchester Marriot in Tarrytown, NY. 

The keynote speaker will be Richard Carmona, MD, MPH, FACS, 17th Surgeon General of the U.S. (2002-2006).  We will also be joined by guest speaker Deborah Bachrach, JD, Deputy Commissioner of the Office of Health Insurance Programs, NYS DOH.
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