April 17th 2015 marked the 17th Annual Low Birthweight Conference hosted by Missouri Bootheel Regional Consortium (MBRC). The theme for this year’s conference was “LEADING THE MOVEMENT: The Importance of Male Involvement and Prenatal Health Care.” Many brilliant speakers from across the country shared their wealth of knowledge on the topics of male involvement and prenatal health care (a great learning opportunity for many professionals and consumers). Speakers included, Dr. Michael McAfee, Jan Figart, Jane Unterreiner, Valda Ford, Dr. Alan Barnette, Dr. Paul Caruso, and Dr. Lamonte’ M. Calvin. A total of twelve exhibitors were presented at the events: American Lung Association-Grassroots; Building Blocks of Missouri; Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri; Delta Area Economic Opportunity Corporation; March of Dimes; Regional Bureau for Special Needs Healthcare; Scott County Health Department; St. Francis Medical Center; The Brave Center; University of Missouri-Educare Project Reach; John J. Pershing Veterans Medical Center, Women Veterans Program; and Bootheel Babies and Families, the region’s infant mortality reduction initiative. Also, podcasts were hosted by MBRC staff throughout the conference. All speakers from the conference, including the guest speaker, were interviewed by MBRC staff with information that pertains to their awareness and experience on the importance of male involvement and/or prenatal health care. (For more information on MBRC’s podcasts, please visit our website and/or connect with us on Facebook. More updated information on our podcasts will soon be available.)
We were very fortunate to have a guest celebrity speaker to join us for this year’s Low Birthweight Conference. He is a National Football League player from Green Bay Packers, Letroy Guion #98! Letroy Guion shared his personal experience as a father to his four beautiful daughters while juggling his career as a professional football player. He revealed that he understands and stresses the importance of father involvement in the course of prenatal care for the mother of his children. He makes every effort to be actively involved in his children lives despite his busy schedule that demands a large amount of his time to be away for games.
Many attendees at the low birth weight conference not only gained valuable information on male involvement in prenatal care from health care professionals, but they also had the opportunity to network and meet with people who share the same passion and common goal—to provide the care and resources to ensure that “Every Baby Deserves a Healthy Start—They Must Have An Equal Start.”
MBRC and its staff would like to thank for those of you who attended the LBW conference. We hope you find our LBW conference to be enjoyable and find the information learned to be pertinent to the work that you are already doing! Thank you all for your participation and your work in promoting child and family health and stability.
Finally, MBRC would like to thank our wonderful volunteers for their efforts in making the LBW conference a great success. We greatly appreciate your help and your dedication to the community.
If you’re interested in finding more about MBRC programs, are interested in attending some of our events and/or wish to become involved in some way, please visit our website and/or follow us on Facebook for more information!