Health District Awarded Grant For High-Risk Maternity Program

FREDERICKSBURG, VA — The Rappahannock Area Health District (RAHD) was awarded a $100,000 grant for its maternity program that provides outpatient prenatal care to hundreds of uninsured or underinsured pregnant women in the Fredericksburg area. The program, called the Complicated Obstetrical and High-Risk Maternity Care Program, cares for patients who have medical, obstetrical or other conditions that make their pregnancies more complex or high-risk.

The Joe and Mary Wilson Community Benefit Fund of the Mary Washington Hospital Foundation awarded the granted to RAHD, which serves the City of Fredericksburg and the counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford. The grant funding, announced Wednesday, will provide funding for the obstetrical clinicians who staff the maternity program, which began in 2009.

According to RAHD, the grant award also will allow the program to provide more intensive case management to reduce infant and maternal fatalities, preventable emergency department visits and hospitalizations, premature births, and low birth weight births.

RAHD Health Director Dr. Brooke Rossheim said in a statement the Mary Washington Hospital Foundation and Mary Washington Healthcare have been "dedicated partners" with the Rappahannock Area Health District to serve patients in need of these services.

According to Rossheim, the grant award will help RAHD, part of the Virginia Department of Health, ensure the women, many of whom are high-risk patients, receive the care they need.