The Maternity and Early Childhood Foundation provides leadership in developing, supporting and promoting best practices in the field of maternal and childhood care benefiting those most in need. Founded in 1983, the Maternity and Early Childhood Foundation was created in response to the significant number of teenage mothers and low income single-parent families who were receiving late or no prenatal care and were without basic parenting skills. The support for programs for pregnant women, parenting women, their children and their families who are most in need is still critical today, as borne out by the following statistics.

In 2004, of the 4976 infants born in New York State each week1:

400 infants have teen parents;
646 infants had inadequate pre-natal care;
385 infants have low birth weight, which is less than 5.5 pounds;
594 infants are pre-term; and
32 die before their first birthday.

The Maternity and Early Childhood Foundation provides funds to those agencies and organizations that are committed to providing services to pregnant women, parenting women, and their families to enable them to make a better life for themselves and for their children. Programs funded are those that provide services to those most in need and have no other available sources of funds. The focus of funded programs and services is assisting pregnant women during the prenatal period and parenting women and their families to provide them with skills needed to care for their child.

1statistics available at: www.marchofdimes.com/peristats/ataglance/36.pdf