Page 14 - Delaware Medical Journal - February 2017

Community-Initiated Pilot Program “My Baby’s Breath” to Reduce Prenatal Alcohol Use
Yukiko Washio, PhD; Julie Frederick, DBA, MBA, BSN, RN; Anne Archibald, CMA, MBA;
Nathan Bertram BA, PHR; Jody Allen Crowe, MEd
Prenatal alcohol use puts mothers and their children
at risk for complications during pregnancy, birth, and the neonatal periods. This paper describes a currently implemented community-based pilot program to reduce drinking among pregnant mothers. The program has worked in collaboration with case managers from
Crow Wing County Social Services. Participants were required to provide daily breath samples with monetary incentives on alcohol-negative sample submissions. The program has treated four pregnant mothers so far, with an average of 94 percent compliance rate and
no alcohol-positive breath samples. Future planned adjustments include using a remotely reloadable debit card to reinforce daily sample submission, switching to completely random monitoring schedules to avoid false- negative results, and expanding the program service in other counties. The community-based program using mobile technology has promise to increase opportunities to reinforce healthy lifestyle during pregnancy.
Key words: Social services, incentive-based intervention, drinking during pregnancy, mobile technology, community implementation
Abstract