	Pregnancy Support Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

PS 7: Health Services

Expectant parents are linked to the health services necessary to promote parent well-being, healthy births, and healthy child development.

NA The organization provides only Pregnancy Options Counseling or Birth Options Counseling.

PS 7.01

Expectant parents are linked to the following healthcare services, as appropriate to their needs:

prenatal health care;
genetic risk identification and counseling services;
labor and delivery services;
diagnosis and treatment of health problems, including sexually transmitted diseases;
dental care;
mental health care;
postpartum care;
ongoing health care, including routine medical checkups; and
pediatric care, including well-baby visits and immunizations.

PS 7.02

Expectant parents are helped to access other services needed to promote parental well-being and healthy births, including, as appropriate:

food and nutrition services;
smoking cessation services; and
services for substance use conditions.

PS 7.03

Expectant parents are helped to sign up for health insurance when coverage is available and receive information about other options for care, such as free clinics, when insurance coverage is not available.

PS 7.04

To help expectant parents stay healthy and prevent unintended subsequent pregnancies, the organization:

provides information and education about the prevention and treatment of diseases, including HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases;
provides information and education about pregnancy prevention, pregnancy planning, and the spacing of children; and
links expectant parents to family planning services.

Interpretation: An organization that does not link service recipients with family planning services when doing so is counter to its mission or beliefs should disclose this fact to service recipients.

Note: When an organization does not provide linkages to family planning services because doing so is counter to its mission or beliefs, practice could include providing individuals with a comprehensive list of other community providers that offer pregnancy support and education services.

Research Note: Research indicates that rapid repeat births are associated with adverse outcomes for adolescent mothers and their children. It is unclear if these outcomes result from subsequent births or the underlying characteristics that lead some teen mothers to give birth a second time, and literature suggests there may be truth to both explanations. Some experts suggest that youths become pregnant because they believe they have limited life options and little to lose by having a baby. Accordingly, as addressed in PS 8 and PS 9, organizations should try to motivate adolescents to prevent future pregnancies by: (1) linking them to the education and employment opportunities that may improve their life options, and (2) helping them develop the confidence that they can utilize and benefit from those opportunities. Literature also cautions that it can be difficult for a program to succeed in preventing subsequent pregnancies, especially when service recipients live in communities where opportunities are limited, or do not share the program’s goal of delaying future pregnancies.

QUICK JUMP TO


	PURPOSE: Individuals who participate in Pregnancy Support Services learn about parenthood, make informed decisions about their pregnancies, stay healthy, and pursue their educational and vocational goals.

RELATED FILES


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	PARENTS Parents can include: birth, foster, kinship, and adoptive parents. Please see service standards for more specific information about use of this term.


	LINKED The means by which individuals access services that may or may not be provided by the organization itself. These terms are used interchangeably when individuals are linked to services either directly or by referral. See also CONNECTED.


	PREGNANCY OPTIONS COUNSELING Counseling services designed to help pregnant individuals make decisions about all possible options for a pregnancy including and not limited to parenting, adoption or other transfer of custody, and termination. See also BIRTH OPTIONS COUNSELING.


	BIRTH OPTIONS COUNSELING Counseling services designed to help pregnant individuals make decisions about options for birth, including and not limited to parenting and adoption or other transfer of custody. Organizations providing Birth Options Counseling do not provide information and counseling about pregnancy termination. See also PREGNANCY OPTIONS COUNSELING.


	DIAGNOSIS The process by which a social, physical, or mental health problem and its underlying cause are identified and a plan of action formulated toward resolution of the problem. The diagnostic process involves collection and analysis of relevant information. See also ASSESSMENT.


	PREVENTION Actions taken to minimize and/or eliminate social, psychological, or other conditions. Prevention can occur at the individual, group, community, and societal levels and enhances opportunities to achieve positive fulfillment.


	PLANNING The process of specifying objectives, evaluating the means for their achievement, and exercising deliberate decision making about appropriate courses of action.


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialization, income support, long-term care, and other caregiving are among the functions of family life. The definition of "family" will rest with an individual's indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, fictive kin, or significant others. Organizations that believe family is the central constellation in a child's life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of "family."


	SERVICE RECIPIENT The individuals, groups, organizations, or communities that use, receive, or benefit from programs and services. Service recipients can include consumers, patients, family members, legal guardians, advocates, public/private organizations, employers, and purchasers. All are regarded as significant stakeholders served in a variety of agencies and practice settings.


	PRACTICE Established actions or ways of proceeding in the regular performance of organizational duties. Policies and procedures often guide practice.


	COMMUNITY A specific group of people living in the same locality and who may share a common culture, values, and norms. Communities can also be defined by race, religion, ethnicity, age, occupation, political status, tribal affiliation, interest in particular problems or outcomes, or other common bonds. The term "community" encompasses worksites, schools, tribes, residential neighborhoods, business districts, recreational areas, and health and human service sites.


	RESEARCH For purposes of COA accreditation, all forms of internal or external research involving persons served except internal program evaluation and outcomes research, or educational projects performed by students and interns that are part of their professional training.


	PROGRAM A system of services offered by an organization. For example, an organization providing a mental health service may offer several mental health programs to different populations, e.g., a mental health program for adolescent teens. The word "program" can be used interchangeably with the word "service" or to describe specific programs.