Washington – U.S. Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor and U.S. Representatives Marion Berry (AR-01), Vic Snyder (AR-02) and Mike Ross (AR-04) today announced that the Arkansas Department of Health will receive a $1,241,740 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grant to support programs that help improve the health of mothers and children.
Funds will be used to support maternal and child health programs aimed at reducing infant mortality, increasing the number of children immunized against disease, expanding access to maternity care for women, and supporting child care and health services for children with special needs. Services for pregnant mothers are offered at 59 maternity clinics throughout Arkansas, and child health services are offered at local health units at 94 locations in Arkansas’s 75 counties.
These funds were awarded under HHS’s Maternal and Child Health Services Grant program.
“This investment will ensure that pregnant mothers and children throughout Arkansas receive quality health services, and these funds will be especially helpful for parents of children with special needs,” Lincoln said. “I congratulate the Arkansas Department of Health for successfully administering a program that has delivered enormous public health benefits in the last 75 years, and I will continue working to secure resources that expand access to quality health care for Arkansas’s children and mothers.”
“Quality health care for mothers and children saves lives and lifts up families. This investment will help mothers and children across Arkansas stay healthy and receive the care they need and deserve,” Pryor said.
“Getting mothers proper prenatal care, educating parents about child immunization, and providing services for special needs children are some of the best investments in our children’s future we can make,” Berry said. “This grant will give our health care providers the much needed support to continue these important programs.”
“We must do all we can to ensure that our children and expecting mothers have access to the best possible care, nutrition and resources available,” Ross said. “I am pleased to help announce this federal investment because it will provide greater access to important health care programs throughout our state.”
“The Maternal and Child Health Services grant has been so important to Arkansas because over the years it has helped us to reduce infant and maternal mortality 95 percent and eliminate the suffering and deaths associated with polio. The recent addition of folic acid to the public food supply has resulted in a 25 percent decrease in the number of babies born to Arkansas families with fatal brain and spine birth defects,” said Dr. David Grimes, Family Health Branch Chief at the Arkansas Department of Health.
