Geary County’s Delivering Change: Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies program has expanded to Riley County.
“We’re excited to partner with Geary Community Hospital and Geary County and Riley County,” said John Broberg, Senior Administrator for Mercy Regional Health Center.
The program was created in response to a growing need for pre and postnatal education and health care access, as identified in the 2010 Community Health Needs Assessment and later confirmed by the 2014 Community Needs Assessment in Riley County.
Riley County’s Perinatal Coalition, created to address the needs identified in 2010, officially partnered with Geary County’s Perinatal Coalition under the Delivering Change model in December of last year.
“We want our families in Riley and Geary County to know when they see Delivering Change, it’s about, that’s where I get the education on prenatal care, pregnancy health as well as after the baby is born,” said Kimberly Cox, chair of the Riley County Perinatal Coalition and director of the Birth and Women’s Center at Mercy Regional Health Center.
Since the inception of Delivering Change in 2011, recent KDHE statistics indicate that women’s access to adequate prenatal care has increased for the 4th straight year. The KDHE also indicates the infant mortality rate in Geary County has dropped to 7.5 per 1000 live births.
