The Blues Project ( BlueCross/BlueShield)

Infant mortality due to lack of proper prenatal care is a disturbing occurrence in the United States. Pregnant women who do not receive prenatal care often find themselves in the disposition of being unable to afford or acquire maternity insurance and prenatal care; and some women do not even realize how important prenatal care is to the health of their unborn babies.

In many cases the absence of prenatal care has roots far deeper than financial instability. Other social factors such as education, location, ethnicity, race and age come in to play and dynamically force financial outcomes. The Blues Project, a Memphis-based study conducted by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and UT Medical Group Inc., and funded by BlueCross/BlueShield of Tennessee, is working to uncover the reasons behind these social factors and has helped hundreds of pregnant women gain access to prenatal care and other maternity-related services in the process (http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/oct/03/blues-project-helps-fight-infant/).

I laud the Blues Project for taking an initiative to understand why so many women are unable to attain prenatal care. It is my hope, and undoubtedly the hope of the project's coordinators, that the information the study yields will shed light on solutions that can be implemented to correct this issue and its tragic outcomes.

Many published studies are little more than “findings,” scientific discovery and fact confirmation. Too few actually suggest viable solutions to problematic findings. Too many organizations raise money to conduct studies without spending any of that money to help the disadvantaged and discriminated. In the case of the Blues Project, funds seem to be used to help pregnant women and their unborn children throughout the study – which should lend insight into what strategies are effective in fighting socioeconomic precognitions when seeking prenatal care. Let's hope that such strategies are part of the Blues Project's findings.

The Blue Project has helped hundreds, but tens of thousands more women need similar help. What happens to them? What happens to the women of Memphis, which has the worse infant mortality rate of all major U.S. Cities, when the Blue Project closes (http://www.bcbst.com/about/news/releases/default.asp?release=179)? The study is being conducted in Memphis, but the scope of this study (and its proposed solutions) is much bigger than one city. It's time to stop talking about our problems and start doing something about them.

I am PRO MOM!!!
Aaron Bouren
Advocate Aaron