The Virginia Rural Health Association is one of three organizations nationwide to receive a $4 million federal grant to expand maternal health care in rural communities.
The money, awarded through the federal Health Resources and Services Administration’s Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies — or Rural MOMS — program, will be distributed over four years to build a network of services in Southwest Virginia.
According to the association’s press release, the grant will target the counties of Bland, Buchanan, Carroll, Dickenson, Grayson, Lee, Russell, Tazewell, Scott, Smyth, Wise and Wythe and the cities of Galax and Norton. The March of Dimes has identified many of these areas as maternal health deserts. Many of the localities didn’t have any obstetrics clinicians at all in 2021, according to the March of Dimes’ most recent data.
Patients in the region face a multitude of barriers, including geographic isolation, high poverty rates, health care workforce shortages and the closure of labor and delivery units.
The Rural MOMS program is designed to strengthen rural maternal care by supporting collaborative models, building comprehensive networks and encouraging innovation. For the first year, funding will support planning. In later years, the grant will fund new perinatal services within local health departments, mobile and satellite clinics, and workforce initiatives.
Recruiting and training community health workers, who help patients navigate complex health systems, will be a key priority. The grant will also expand the region’s pool of doulas and provide specialized training for nurses and nursing students. Telehealth will also play a central role. A Project ECHO hub, which is a secure videoconferencing platform used for telehealth visits, will connect local providers with specialists in maternal-fetal medicine to share expertise and improve care.
The association will also host an annual Maternal Health Forum and a Maternal Health Workshop tailored to rural health clinics.
Based in Blacksburg, the Virginia Rural Health Association advocates for the state’s 2.5 million rural residents through education, partnerships and policy work.
This Rural MOMS award follows another recent grant, according to the press release. The association received $1.2 million from HRSA’s Rural Health Care Services Outreach Program, which will help create the Cumberland Plateau Perinatal Health Network.
The initiative aims to address gaps in maternal and perinatal care by strengthening the workforce, expanding supportive services and building sustainable, community-driven models. The goal of the network is to improve access, utilization and health outcomes across the Cumberland Plateau Health District — which serves Dickenson, Buchanan, Russell and Tazewell counties — while laying a foundation for long-term maternal and child well-being.
