International Women's Day: March 8

Often the greatest societal and multi-generational change comes through women helping women.

One woman who is doing just that in Houston is Marisa Pena-Alfaro, program director of the Community Doula Program at the Healthy Family Initiatives. Her passion is empowering teenage and low-income mothers to overcome the challenges of pregnancy and motherhood. She not only equips these young women with information about their health, bodies, pregnancy, labor, delivery, breastfeeding, and infants, but she also promises to be a source of support. She takes phone calls 24/7.

The primary goal of the Community Doula Program is to prevent poor health outcomes for mothers and infants. The following figures summarize the services and outcomes for 2008:
· 175 pregnant mothers were served
· 56% were teenagers
· 71.2% prenatal sessions were completed
· 1,620 individual telephone support calls were completed
· 96.8% mothers carried pregnancy full term (87.5% national rate, March of Dimes)
· 80% mothers delivered infants vaginally (68.9% national rate, NCHS)
· 97% mothers delivered healthy weight infants (92% national rate, NCHS)
· 81% infants breastfed for at least 6 months (13% national rate, AAP)

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First celebrated in 1911, International Women's Day honors the economic, social, and political achievements of women throughout the world.

http://www.internationalwomensday.com/
http://www.care.org/
http://www.apowerfulnoise.org/