Wednesday, April 17, 2002

WILMINGTON, NC – Maternal-child experts from around the world will meet Tuesday, April 23, through Thursday, April 25, at the Blockade Runner, Wrightsville Beach, for the ninth International Conference of Maternity Care Researchers. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Northwest Area Health Education Center at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington School of Nursing are co-hosting the conference. This is the first time that the conference, held every two years, will convene in the continental United States.

“It’s vitally important to share information to improve the quality of maternity care delivered to women, babies and families throughout the world,” said Dr. Mary Lou Moore, conference chair and professor at WFU Medical School. “While America has one of the most advanced health care systems in the world, we don’t have a monopoly on information. For instance, the United States has one of the highest infant mortality rates among industrialized nations.”

International participants representing Australia, Canada, England, Scotland, Sweden and Thailand will attend the conference. Researchers from California, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Pennsylvania will also be there. Sessions and presentations will center on various topics including:



Cigarette smoking by African-American women and its effect on low-birth weight

Educating young women about the benefits of folic acid to prevent neural tube birth defects

The pregnancy prevention program College Bound Sisters

Smoking as a determinant of non-breastfeeding

Link between bed rest during pregnancy and maternal weight gain and infant birth weight

Infant mortality and teen pregnancy are a concern not only in UNC Wilmington’s service region of southeastern North Carolina but across the state, said Dr. Virginia Adams, dean of UNCW’s School of Nursing.

North Carolina’s infant death rate exceeds the national average. According to the North Carolina Healthy Start Foundation, 1,034 babies died before their first birthday in 2000 – a rate of 8.6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. The national average was 7.2 deaths per live births.

For Cape Fear area counties, infant death rates exceeded the state and national average according to figures from the State Center for Health Statistics. In Brunswick County, the rate was 9.7 per 1,000 live births. For New Hanover and Pender counties, the rates were 8.3 and 8.9, respectively. For minority babies, infant death rates are at least twice that of white babies. In Pender County, the average death rate for minority babies from 1996 to 2000 was 16 per 1,000 live birth compared to 7.7 for white babies. It was much the same for New Hanover and Brunswick counties. Minority rates were 12.5 and 11.4, respectively, versus 7.3 and 6.8 for white babies.

For more information, contact Dr. Mary Lou Moore, WFU School of Medicine, at 336/716-3662 or by e-mail at mmoore@wfubmc.edu. Contact Dr. Virginia Adams at 910/962-3784, e-mail adamsv@uncw.edu.

Note to Media:

Members of the media are invited to cover and attend the conference. Sessions are not open to the public. Dignitaries from Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach will welcome conference attendees at 8:30 a.m., Tuesday, April 23.

Possible Story Angles:

As noted above, infant mortality rates in southeastern North Carolina as well as the rest of the state are higher than average. Conference attendees could provide commentary on how research could lead to practices that reduce these rates.

The same scenario applies to teenage pregnancy with statistics showing the U.S. teen birth rate almost twice that of Great Britain and Canada and almost five times that of Sweden.

Also, North Carolina has a high rate of infants born with neural tube defects (NTD), which is the incomplete development of the neural tube, the structure that becomes the brain and spinal cord. Research shows that 70 percent of NTDs can be prevented if women of childbearing age consumed .4 milligrams of folic acid every day beginning well before pregnancy. Dr. Heidi VonKoss Krowchuk, associate professor at UNC Greensboro, will discuss using a peer-education model to increase the number of college-aged women consuming folic acid.

During the past year, UNC Wilmington’s Student Health Services has assisted New Hanover County Health Department and the March of Dimes to distribute to young women three-month supplies of multivitamins and related literature about the value of folic acid in preventing NTDs.

For more information on this program, contact Elisabeth Constandy, health promotion coordinator, New Hanover County Health Department, at 910/343-6658 or Sharlene Pence, UNCW Student Health Services, at 910/962-3280.