BlueChoice HealthPlan

Great Expectations® Maternity

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Great Expectations^® Maternity helps members take the right steps towards having a healthy baby. We provide free educational materials and ongoing support and monitoring by our nursing staff. If seeking additional pregnancy education, members may want to consider taking a S.C. hospital-based perinatal education class. Contact the facility directly for specific class information.

Members can also find lots of information on pregnancy, childbirth and caring for a baby through My 9 Months and the Pregnancy Center. A new helpful and fun resource is text4baby. Get FREE messages each week on your cell phone to help you through your pregnancy and your baby's first year.

How Do Members Sign Up?

A member's obstetrician or primary care physician will contact us. When we receive a Maternity Authorization, we send the expectant mother an invitation to join the program. We'll also send a detailed Maternity Questionnaire for her to complete. This form helps our staff assign a risk level to the pregnancy, which helps guide our recommendations. We also include a voucher for the pregnany mom to choose a pregnancy or baby book.

When we receive the completed health assessment and book voucher, we'll send the expectant mother the free pregnancy or baby book of her choice. She'll also get a copy of our Maternity Guidelines, which show our recommended schedule of care during pregnancy.

What Do Members Receive?

• Telephone counseling sessions that cover general maternity information and information about the member's specific condition. The number of calls we make depends on the member's risk level and her individual pregnancy. We encourage all members to call us any time with questions or concerns they have.
• Additional educational materials, including a list of helpful community resources.
• Referrals to other Great Expectations programs that can help with other health issues, such as asthma, diabetes or quitting smoking.
• A telephone call and follow-up letter after delivery, with information about immunizations for the baby and a reminder about scheduling the postpartum visit.
• Helpful information about postpartum blues and postpartum depression. You can complete this short survey and take it with you to your postpartum followup appointment.

For information or to enroll in a Great Expectations^® program, members can log into My Health Toolkit and select "Great Expectations" from the Health and Wellness menu.

Helpful Information

Before You're Pregnant
Breastfeed versus Bottlefeed?
Breastfeeding: How To and Steps for Success
Exercise During Pregnancy
Facts for Parents about Autism and Vaccine Safety from the American Academy of Pediatrics
Fetal Development by Trimester
Gestational Diabetes
Immunizations
Interactive Pregnancy Tools: Ovulate, Due date and Weight gain calculators
Just for Dad
March of Dimes
Nutrition During Pregnancy
Postpartum Depression
Postpartum Support in South Carolina
Pre-eclampsia (Toxemia of Pregnancy;Pregnancy-induced Hypertension)
Pregnancy and Newborn Health Education Center
Premature Birth
Preparing for the Arrival of Your Newborn
Shaken Baby Syndrome (AAP, 2006)
Six Week Postpartum Check-Up
Virtual Pregnancy and Birthing Classroom
Weight Gain During Pregnancy