Return-Path: <nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id gAPK8SX25841; Mon, 25 Nov 2002 15:08:28 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 15:08:28 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <000001c294be$2a4187f0$6401a8c0@lisa> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Lisa Bernstein" <lisa.expect@verizon.net> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-HEALTH:3811] prenatal health literacy X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.2627 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 3820 Lines: 77 Hi, I've just joined this listerve and wanted to introduce myself and ask advice as we translate research into practice. First an introduction: 1. I'm the Ex. Dir. of The What To Expect Foundation, a relatively new non-profit that takes its name from the nation's bestselling pregnancy and parenting series that includes What To Expect When You're Expecting. The entire series has sold over 20 million copies and is read by 93% of all mother who buy a pregnancy guide. 2. The Foundation's mission is to provide prenatal health and literacy education to low-income mothers. We started this project because many clinics across the country requested donations of the What To Expect books - we felt that book did not meet the needs of low-income moms and wanted to create a guide just for them. 3. Last year we published BABY BASICS: Your Month By Month Guide To A Health Pregnancy, a comprehensive pregnancy guide that takes into account the reading level as well as the special health, economic, social, and cultural needs of low-income pregnant women (and fathers to-be ). We spent two years working with outreach workers and mothers across the country to design the book. 100,000 free copies were given to pre-natal clinics, community health centers and outreach worker programs across the country last year. And then we watched how they were used by both providers and mothers. We've also just completed a Spanish cultural and linguistic translation as well. 4. We've had an overwhelmingly positive response to the book - (and have orders for 400,000) but it is clear that just putting a good book out there isn't enough. Many health care providers needed help ...learning about health literacy issues, and best practices for teaching low-literate patients. 5. So, we are now creating a BABY BASICS prenatal health literacy program that helps pre-natal care providers integrate the latest in health literacy research and teaching skills into their care -- In addition to the book, the program has a training component, an implementation and curriculum guide, and other materials for providers and patients. 6. Part of our goal, too, is to get pregnant women reading - because A Mother Who Can Read Can Raise A Child Who Can Read. So we will be networking pre-natal clinics with adult ed programs that will teach women prenatal literacy. Which happily flows into family/parenting literacy. While we continue to distribute the BABY BASICS book across the country, we are beginning to create BABY BASICS sites. This winter we're starting in Newark, NJ by providing training and support to create model BABY BASICS sites. Here comes the question part of this email. We are creating a tool, we're calling it a literacy audit, that will help providers - and by that I mean anyone who provides prenatal health and education support-- to help them do a literacy walkthrough of their site and do a "fix." We've suggested they look at their signage - from the entrance way to the individual offices. We've suggested they look at their intake form, and other written materials and are giving them the tools to test the reading level (and giving them already tested forms they can use instead) We've asked them to look at their waiting room --- and add children's books for older siblings. So in the research and collective wisdom of this listerve, my question is--- what are the less obvious things a health care program should look at when they create a "literacy friendly pre-natal site?" What would be in your wish list? Thanks in advance Lisa Bernstein PS. If you're interested in seeing our program feel free to email me at lisab@whattoexpect.org and/or visit our web site at www.whattoexpect.org Lisa Bernstein Executive Director The What To Expect Foundation 212-712-9764 lisab@whattoexpect.org
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Jan 17 2003 - 14:41:35 EST