Momentum

The Every Woman Southeast Initiative has been very busy since our last post. Our leadership team has met by conference call several times a month over the summer into early fall. It's amazing what you can get done by phone!

Together we've put together the content for our new website - www.everywomansoutheast.org - which we hope to launch within a week or so. The website will have alot of information about our Initiative as well as updates on the preconception health related activities underway in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi. We have current news and information about preconception health related resources from around the country.

We have also organized our first webinar to be held on Thursday November 4th from 12 to 1:30 EST. The March of Dimes is helping us host that call - stay tuned for the weblink. The webinar will provide examples of ways that several states in the Southeast have organized around preconception health.

Finally, we've developed goals, aims and activities for our first collaborative project. In light of the fact that over 12% of women in the Southeast have birth to conception intervals of 6 months or less, we thought that focusing on reducing short birth intervals and improving postpartum visit utilization would be a good place to start. Now to just find the right partner to provide us with the resources to take our next steps.

Other members of the leadership team have agreed to become bloggers which will be fun as well as offering our readers a wide variety of perspectives on working together to improve the health of women and their children.