Southaven, Miss., April 22, 2005 - Staff at Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto’s Women’s Pavilion recently celebrated the beginning of the center’s Perinatal Continuing Education Program with a baby shower complete with refreshments, games and door prizes.

The Perinatal Continuing Education Program, funded by a March of Dimes grant, will last nine months, like a normal pregnancy. The goal of the course is to enhance the ability of health care professionals who care for pregnant women or newborn babies to identify potential problems and provide patient services to reduce preterm births. It is designed to increase nursing knowledge and skills in prenatal risk assessment, pregnancy case management and educational services for high-risk women.

“This program will raise the bar of excellence in our staff so they can more readily identify and prevent perinatal problems in our mothers and infants,” said Reynae Russell, director of women’s services at Baptist DeSoto. “This is just another way we’re helping enhance the care we deliver to new moms and their babies.”

The Baptist Women’s Pavilion, a 34,570-square-foot multiservice center serving women through all stages of life and health, includes services for labor and delivery and gynecological surgery and care. It has nine labor and delivery suites, 24 postpartum rooms, two operating suites and a triage, or evaluation, area. Baptist DeSoto averages between 135 and 150 deliveries a month.

For more information, please call (662) 349-4000 or visit http://desoto.baptistonline.org.

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