Front: Nurse, Adriana Mendoza; and mother and baby, Brooke and Emerald Little. Back: Outreach Coordinator, Ashleigh Wiederin; Nurses, Amber Mahrt, Alison King, and Sara Knobbe; and The Birth Place Director. Ginny Uhlenkamp
The Birth Place at St. Anthony Regional Hospital has been selected to receive over $200,000 from Iowa’s Centers of Excellence grant program. Gov. Kim Reynolds proposed the pilot grant program in May 2021 as part of the state’s efforts to encourage innovation and collaboration between regional health care providers and improve access for expecting mothers and their children. St. Anthony President and CEO, Ed Smith, says, “This Centers of Excellence grant will help ensure that quality health care remains accessible, affordable and close to home. The recent trend toward closing obstetric units in rural areas has created challenges for families who want to expand. Even before this grant became available, St. Anthony has been developing partnerships in surrounding communities to support those prospective parents.” The $212,500 grant will be used to purchase new furniture, fetal monitors and phototherapy equipment for the Birth Place as well as provide staff with additional training to become certified OB nursing providers. “We are so excited to receive this grant and enhance our services. Families from nine counties count on St. Anthony as their hospital to deliver babies,” says Ginny Uhlenkamp, director of the Birth Place.
