Pre- and postnatal prevention programs may significantly improve the oral health of mother and child. The overall aim of this project was to assess the need for and develop an oral health promotion program for low-income immigrant pregnant women in New York City. Results from the baseline survey showed very low awareness of the importance of maternal oral health and its relationship to an infant's general and oral health among the participants. Based on these results, we developed culturally appropriate educational materials and workshops to promote oral health among pregnant women. As of September 2005, we had conducted more than 500 workshops, distributed educational packages to close to 10,000 women and disseminated about 20,000 brochures in four languages to health care centers and maternal health centers across New York State.

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information processing cultural anthropology health care planning prenatal care Community Health Services community care human Pregnant Women dental health education Health Plan Implementation ethnology Health Education, Dental Hispanic Americans program development United States Humans Hispanic Adolescent female dental caries pregnancy Article organization and management adult migration New York City Emigration and Immigration pregnant woman Data Collection Culture