Summary of the Final Evaluation of North Carolinas Maternal Outreach Worker (mow) Program

In this report, findings from the Final Evaluation Report of North Carolina’s Maternal Outreach Worker (MOW) Program are presented. The focus here is on the evaluation of program objectives, as originally proposed in the 1991 grant application to the Kate B. Reynolds Foundation. The MOW Program is a community-based home visiting program designed to help low income and at-risk pregnant women make full and early use of the existing health care system, achieve a sustainable reduction in risk factors, and reduce adverse birth outcomes. It is also designed to improve infant development. The MOW group included participants from 24 counties, selected during the initial funding period. A comparison group included pregnant women in the Maternity Care Coordination (MCC) Program, in counties not participating in the MOW Program. The evaluation was conducted on two levels: (1) a program-wide analysis of birth certificate data and other service related data from statelevel information systems, and (2) a three-panel interview study including a subset of women from nine project and nine comparison sites. The results suggest that the success of the MOW Program in meeting its stated objectives was mixed. The observed number of low birth weight births and very low birth weight births among African American participants was slightly lower than what was expected. With respect to use of maternal and child health services, we observed few differences between participants and the comparison group. MOW participants were found to be at much higher risk than non-participants on factors such as age and education, so the lack of positive findings for the program should not automatically be interpreted as a lack of program effectiveness. SCHS Studies NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH AND NATURAL RESOURCES A Special Report Series by the State Center for Health Statistics P.O. Box 29538, Raleigh, N.C. 27626-0538 www.schs.state.nc.us/SCHS/ North Carolina Public Health ®