The Uncompaghre Prenatal Program (UPP) provides education, referrals and access to prenatal health care services to uninsured pregnant women in Montrose County. UPP believes improving access to quality health care is a necessity and accomplishes this task by offering enrollment in public health insurance programs, ensuring eligible participants gain access, and providing assistance with translation and transportation to and from medical appointments.

There is an important link between early prenatal care and having healthy babies. Early and regular prenatal care reduces length of hospitalization after delivery.

Birth weight is one of the best indicators of a baby’s future health. An early investment in prenatal care is believed to improve health outcomes for the years to come.

While most American children get off to a healthy start, babies weighing less than 5.5 pounds at birth have a higher probability of experiencing developmental problems. Therefore, low birth weight babies reflect a group likely to have problems as they move through their growth stages.

Our Program Provides…

• Educational information regarding: nutrition, basic development (including effects of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs), and importance of prenatal care
• An UPP Prenatal Mentor helps refer individuals to available community resources and who is bilingual-bicultural and provides translation assisting monolingual and Spanish-speaking women during pregnancy related and prenatal care appointments. Transportation is provided as needed
• Program staff who set up visits to local health and human service departments; a lab or hospital for ultrasound and other tests; prenatal appointments; Montrose Memorial for a two-hour pregnancy pre-admittance process; one-hour glucose tolerance test; a pediatrician's office visit for the baby's first check-up; a prenatal care provider for two postpartum check-ups; and local dental clinic
• Community outreach and education

*Uncompahgre Prenatal Program materials are available in both English and Spanish.