Community-based, culturally appropriate oral health promotion program for immigrant pregnant women in New York City.

Pre- and postnatal prevention programs may significantly improve the oral health of mother and child. The overall aim of this project was to assess the need for and develop an oral health promotion program for low-income immigrant pregnant women in New York City. Results from the baseline survey showed very low awareness of the importance of maternal oral health and its relationship to an infant's general and oral health among the participants. Based on these results, we developed culturally appropriate educational materials and workshops to promote oral health among pregnant women. As of September 2005, we had conducted more than 500 workshops, distributed educational packages to close to 10,000 women and disseminated about 20,000 brochures in four languages to health care centers and maternal health centers across New York State.