Worksite Wellness
Nearly
three-quarters of all mothers in United States hold jobs.
In the past 20 years the percentage of new mothers in the workforce has increased by more than 80 percent. Women of childbearing age comprise one-third of the nation’s workforce.
Eight out of ten women will become pregnant in their working lives, and most continue to work through the pregnancy and return to work shortly after the baby is born.
One-third of mothers return to work within three months of giving birth and two-thirds return within six months.
Prenatal worksite wellness programs have been shown to: improve pregnancy outcomes, reduce the rates of preterm births, smoking, and cesarean sections, and therefore significantly reduce health care costs to employers. But we found that very few companies in West Virginia have perinatal wellness programs.
The Perinatal Partneship is working to educate West Virginia businesses on the value of planning for perinatal health and identifying incentives to encourage businesses to put programs in place. A fuller description of the problem and what we are doing about it can be found in the Reports on the Blueprint to Improve West Virginia Perinatal Health.