The Lower Hudson Valley Perinatal Network has become the newest New York State Department of Health funded Comprehensive Prenatal-Perinatal Services Network. In 2004 the Lower Hudson Valley Perinatal Network was established by the Regional Perinatal Center of Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center with seed money from  the March of Dimes, and in collaboration with key organizations including local county departments of health, local community hospitals and health centers, and community-based organizations. The goal of the Lower Hudson Valley Perinatal Network is to improve birth outcomes, eliminate disparities in birth outcomes and improve the health of women, children and families in Dutchess, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties. 

The New York State Comprehensive Prenatal-Perinatal Services Networks Program  was established in 1987. The overall mission of the program is to collaborate and coordinate work with key stakeholders to implement broad population-based interventions that will enhance, promote and improve the perinatal health care system to improve pregnancy outcomes and access to and utilization of prenatal-perinatal health care services.

Dutchess, Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester, the counties previously without a state funded Perinatal Network, have the highest number of Hudson Valley Region live births (74 percent or 21,723). Additionally, the Lower Hudson Valley Region is ethnically diverse, having the highest percentages of live births to foreign-born mothers in the entire Hudson Valley Region, with 37.4% in Westchester, 33.3 percent in Rockland, 18.5 percent in Putnam, 18.3 percent in Dutchess (NYSDOH, 1993-1998). The Lower Hudson Valley Perinatal Network counties have unique issues with racial and ethnic disparities in perinatal outcomes as well, contradicting the common belief that these are the wealthiest counties without significant perinatal issues.

Major accomplishments of the Lower Hudson Valley Perinatal Network since its inception in 2004 include the following:

·       Awarded a $1,050,000 grant over five years from the NYS Department of Health to become the newest and only state funded Comprehensive Prenatal-Perinatal Services Network Program for the Lower Hudson Valley Region.   

·       Awarded a $50,000 grant from the Westchester County Youth Bureau to develop and implement a Social Health Marketing Campaign aimed at improving birth outcomes in Mt. Vernon and Peekskill. 

·        Educated more than 710 providers and consumers through the network’s quarterly education and networking meetings.

·        Published and distributed 300 copies of the Lower Hudson Valley Perinatal Resource Directory, listing more than 290 local organizations.

·        Partnered with the United Way to promote a Perinatal Resource Line through the United Way’s Hudson Valley Regional Call Center (211) 

·        Completed a comprehensive community needs assessment.

·        Served as the co-chair of the Hudson Valley Regional Perinatal Forum and Chair of the Forum’s Access to Care Action Committee.

·        Enhanced the Lower Hudson Vally Perinatal Network’s Web presence through a new Web site, http://www.LHVPN.net , that serves as a portal to perinatal resources in the Lower Hudson Valley

·        Gave presentations on the project at regional and national pediatric and public health meetings.

·        Expanded the Lower Hudson Valley Perinatal Network Steering Committee membership to include consumer, faith community and business representation.

·        Invited to join the Association of Perinatal Networks of NY, an organization of statewide perinatal networks.

Cheryl Hunter-Grant, LMSW, serves as the Lower Hudson Valley
Perinatal Network’s executive director, and Heather Brumberg, MD, MPH, serves
as its medical director. For more information, visit the Web site, http://www.LHVPN.net, call (914) 493-6435, or e-mail heather_brumberg@nymc.edu or
hunter-grantc@LHVPN.net.