The UTRGV School of Medicine has achieved a major milestone in advancing maternal health through a $2.3 million federal grant to establish the first Maternal Health Research Center in the Rio Grande Valley.
A location for the center has not yet been determined.
UTRGV President Guy Bailey said the Rio Grande Valley has one of the “highest birth rates in the United States.”
“Maternal health and subsequent health of infants is very important,” Bailey said. “So, that’s been part of what we’ve focused on since the beginning of the medical school.”
He said the university has to go through a process for selecting architects and builders.
“There is a set of state laws and Regents’ rules that govern the processes we use to select architects and construction companies and so forth,” Bailey said. “So, assuming if we’re going to build a new facility and not simply repurpose an existing one, we would go through that process.”
Candace Robledo, an associate professor in the School of Medicine and principal investigator for the grant, has been conducting research for it the last five years.
“I think we submitted the grant sometime in the last year,” said Michael B. Hocker, dean of the School of Medicine and senior vice president for UT Health Rio Grande Valley. “This grant is a culmination of years of work on her part, and to get a federally funded grant is an extremely big deal for a researcher in her stage of her career. And it’s good for her, but it’s good for the institution.”
The university was awarded the grant by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration.
The new maternal center will include several units, including primary and community care, family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, according to Hocker.
Psychology senior Marcela Cerda believes the new center would be “great.”
“That way, people can improve their lives for their kids,” Cerda said.
Hocker described the different components of maternal care, from pre-conception to delivery, postpartum care and all aspects of maternal health.
“So preconception through conception, and making sure that pregnant mothers are healthy and have access to the things that they need, especially with diabetes, which is very prevalent here,” he said. “Some women aren’t even aware that they have diabetes, and then may get pregnant and then, during pregnancy, find out that they have gestational diabetes.”
Hocker said the health of the mother has a big impact on the health of the unborn child and noted factors such as nutrition, medication and maternal care during and after pregnancy.
“The best thing we can do for the unborn child is make sure that the mother is healthy and has access to nutrition, medications and maternal care, and then all the way up through delivery, and then postpartum, after delivery,” he said. “I’m just so proud of the people we have working for us.
“And really, as we transform the health in the Rio Grande Valley, this is just another great example of where we bring research with clinical care. And hopefully, now and in the future, we continue to support the patients in the Rio Grande Valley and make it a healthier community and environment.”
Bailey said the university is excited about the future Maternal Health Research Center.
“Anytime we can expand health care and our reach of health care in the Valley, we’re very pleased,” he said. “So, it’s a good thing for the medical school and an even better thing for the Rio Grande Valley.”
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