Go to the homepage for the Sylva Herald and Ruralite

REACH receives $10,100 March of Dimes grant

By Rose Hooper
Bunny Wilson (left) and Elizabeth Worley Herald photo by Rose Hooper

Bunny Wilson, left, community director with the March of Dimes, presented REACH of Jackson County with a $10,100 grant. Elizabeth Worley, right, REACH program services director, said the grant will be used to identify pregnant women at risk of being abused by a partner and provide those women with services to reduce the incidence of low-birth weight and fetal injury.

REACH of Jackson County received a $10,100 grant from the March of Dimes to identify and assist pregnant women who are being abused or who are at risk for abuse.

"Western North Carolina rates high in birth defects. In fact, we are one of the top-rated areas in the world. Not a statistic we are proud of," said Bunny Wilson, March of Dimes community director. "We are in a crisis situation.

Other alarming statistics, according to Elizabeth Worley, REACH program services director, "are the staggering statistics on domestic violence. Some studies indicate that 50 percent of all relations experience violence at some point. More women are killed or injured by their partners than from all other sources of injury combined. Pregnant women are particularly prone to their partners' abuse."

Worley went on to say that "men who batter often escalate their violence during their partners' pregnancy, often aiming abuse directly at the abdomen. Women and their fetuses are vulnerable to severe injury with such attacks. The unborn child can sustain skull and femur fractures, early separation from the placenta and death."

Neurological damage incurred in utero can create lifelong developmental problems for the child, Wilson added.

"The grant will be used as a real collaborative effort among REACH, the Jackson County Health Department and the March of Dimes," said Worley. "Our goal is saving babies together."
The health department's role is screening women in their maternity outreach program for birth defects, domestic violence, sexual abuse and substance abuse. After an initial assessment, REACH can help identify the women at risk and provide them with resources.

"We expect to identify 36 pregnant women, and we project offering services to 85 percent of them. Some women who are being abused will refuse services, at least initially, from fear of greater retribution by their partners, or out of hope that he will change," Worley said.

If a women is identified at risk, the maternity care coordinator from the health department will obtain permission from the client before any referrals are made to the REACH social worker. Clients will then receive information about the seriousness of domestic violence during pregnancy and after, and its long-term effects on children raised in such environments, and the variety of legal and civil options available to help stop the violence.

Objectives of the program are to reduce the level of violence being experienced by identified clients and to reduce the incidence of low-birth weight and fetal injury that is often the by-product of domestic violence during pregnancy.

Last year, the regional MOD ranked number one in the nation for turning money directly back to the community, said Wilson. "Our ratio is 80 percent of collections goes right back to the community. And that's important because people want to know where there money goes when they give."

Jackson County's March of Dimes Walk America 2000 is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, April 15, in the First Union parking lot. For more information on the walk, call chairman Joe Smith at Fairview School at 586-2819 or home at 586-0286.

Back to Archive: 04/06/00.