CLIENTS SERVED
* 55 pregnant women were served during the first year, exceeding the first-year goal of 50.
* An additional 60 women have entered the program since July 2009.
* Clients in the program range in age from 19-41, with the average age being 26.
* Nearly two-thirds of clients are Guatemalan, with another quarter indicating they are Mexican or Mexican-American. Two each said they were Honduran and El Salvadoran, and one each said she was Puerto Rican and Colombian.
* 74.5 percent claimed Spanish as their primary language, while 16.4 said they speak Mam and 9.1 percent Kanjobal, both Guatemalan Mayan dialects.
Source: Evaluation Report, Center for Applied Social Research, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, July 30, 2009.
HOW IT WORKS
* The promotora de salud, or promoter of health, recruits clients who are pregnant to participate in a program aimed at reducing infant mortality rates and low-weight births among the Hispanic population in Hamilton County.
* The goal is to include 225 pregnant Hispanic women and 400 Hispanic women of childbearing age over a three-year period.
* The program includes health education for both groups through outreach activities.
* For pregnant women, the program provides home visits, interpretive services and support during prenatal physician office visits, follow-up with participants to aid with understanding and compliance after visits, and tracking of medical appointments.
Where Eloida Reynoso lived in Guatemala, women don't go to the doctor for prenatal care, sometimes not even to give birth, she said.
When she had her first baby three years ago in Chattanooga, the only thing that changed was that she gave birth in the hospital. But by the time her second son, Clemson Reynoso, was born last month, she was a lot more prepared.
"I think my baby is a lot healthier because I took care of myself more," said Mrs. Reynoso, who participated in the Promotores de Salud program of La Paz de Dios.
In 2008, La Paz de Dios, a local Hispanic community advocacy and services agency, received a $200,000 grant funded under the Bureau of TennCare aimed at reducing the number of low-weight births and the infant mortality rate in that community.
One of the goals of the Promotores de Salud program is to include 225 pregnant Hispanic women during three years. As of this month, the program has served 118.
A promotora de salud, or community health worker, and an assistant promotora make home visits, provide interpretive services during prenatal visits and track their medical appointments.
"I think the program has benefited the health of the mothers and the babies," said Sylvia Rangel, a promotora de salud, after a home visit with Mrs. Reynoso to help her with medical correspondence. "We haven't had many babies with low-weight births. Out of 50, only two were born with low-weight birth last year."
The infant mortality rate for Hispanics in Hamilton County was 9.4 per 1,000 births from 2004 to 2007, about a 10 percent decrease from the years of 2000 to 2003, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.
For that same period, 8.4 percent of Hispanic births were low weight, a 25 percent decrease from 2000 to 2003, the department's figures show.
"There are many reasons why people don't access health care, (but) with the help of our promotores, we work so that language, culture, fear and/or lack of knowledge of the system will not hinder our clients from getting the care they need," said Stacy Johnson, director of La Paz de Dios.
The majority of the participants are from Guatemala or Mexico, and many speak only Spanish or a Guatemalan dialect.
The importance of prenatal care cannot be stressed enough, said Dr. Daniel Schubert, director of gynecology for the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Chattanooga, where at least 50 percent of the patients are Hispanic.
"Especially to a community where they may not have had prenatal care in the past, yet had a safe outcome," he said.
Despite surpassing the goal for the first year, Mrs. Rangel said she still faces many challenges in convincing potential participants of the benefits of prenatal care.
"I think through word-of-mouth there's a lot more approval from the community, but there is still a lot more work to be done," she said.
Perla Trevizo joined the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 2007 and covers immigration/diversity issues and higher education. She holds a master’s degree in newswire journalism from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Texas. In 2011 she participated in the Bringing Home the World international reporting fellowship program sponsored by the International Center for Journalists, producing a series on Guatemalan immigrants for which she ...
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