Congressman Yarmuth receives the Leadership Award from representatives of both Louisville and National Healthy Start Programs.

(Washington, DC) This week, Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3) was awarded the 2011 Congressional Leadership Award from the National Healthy Start Association for his continued support of programs that help serve low-income pregnant women in Louisville and their families.  During his four years in Congress, Yarmuth has been an advocate for Healthy Start initiatives, strongly supporting the Healthy Start Reauthorization Act and calling on House leadership to fully fund the program in 2010.

“Since Healthy Start first began working in Louisville, the number of mothers receiving the prenatal care they need to ensure a healthy pregnancy has nearly doubled, while infant mortality rates have sharply dropped,” said Congressman Yarmuth. “I am honored to be recognized as an ally of a program with such a strong record of success for Louisville families and proud to keep up the fight to ensure Healthy Start has the resources it needs to help more mothers and children.”

The national Healthy Start program was created by the Department of Health and Human Services in 1991, and expanded to Louisville in 1998. In over 100 local communities nationwide, Healthy Start programs offer home visitation programs, pre and post-natal care, educational outreach initiatives, and other services to help address the disparity in care available to low-income pregnant women.

From 1998 to 2007, the percentage of new and expectant mothers receiving care in Louisville increased from 51 to 91 percent. Between 2002 and 2005, not a single Healthy Start mother in Louisville lost her child.

In June of 2009, Congressman Yarmuth announced Louisville’s Healthy Start program would receive more than $6 million in federal funding to improve and expand available services to reach even more of the area’s expectant mothers.

Congressman Yarmuth received the Congressional Leadership award during Tuesday evening’s ceremony in the Dirksen Senate Building. The other recipients this year are Congressmen Raul Grijalva (AZ-7) and James Clyburn (SC-6).