Healthy Babies are Worth the Wait community programs are March of Dimes chapter-led partnerships, focused on decreasing preterm birth by improving health care delivery and increasing access to prevention services. Through collaborations among March of Dimes chapters, health departments, hospitals and community organizations, Healthy Babies are Worth Wait provides education for pregnant women, perinatal providers and the greater community on the problem of preterm birth. Program partners work together to bring attention to strategies and interventions shown to reduce risk factors and to integrate clinical and public health interventions that have been demonstrated to reduce risk for preterm birth. These interventions include patient navigation/care coordination, hospital quality improvement to reduce early elective deliveries, group prenatal care, and smoking cessation, prevention of repeat preterm births, and infection diagnosis and treatment.

Since the completion of the Healthy Babies are Worth the Wait demonstration project (2007 to 2009) in Kentucky, the March of Dimes has expanded the program to 25 sites in five states; in 2014, Kansas and New York joined Kentucky, New Jersey and Texas. The March of Dimes continues to disseminate Healthy Babies are Worth the Wait, with California, Florida and Illinois planning to add the program in 2015.

Healthy Babies are Worth the Wait program results