The Perinatal Outreach Education Program involves a cooperative effort between Eastern AHEC & the Public Health Division of the NC Department of Health and Human Services. This program in collaboration with Neonatal Outreach Education and Training with the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University Department of Pediatrics is an initiative to reduce infant mortality and morbidity in North Carolina by providing educational offerings to perinatal health care providers. The state is divided into six regions and Region VI is comprised of the 23 counties served by Eastern AHEC as well as 5 counties covered by Area L AHEC and Duplin County in Coastal AHEC. This 29 county area is based on the regionalization of perinatal care in North Carolina and comprises the Coastal Plains Region (Region VI).

Perinatal/Neonatal Outreach Education & Training provides:

• Development, planning, implementation, and evaluation of educational offerings based on assessed regional needs and state-directed priorities.
• Education and training designed to improve the quality of care delivered by primary perinatal and neonatal health care providers in physicians' offices, rural and community health centers, hospitals, tertiary centers, and public health departments.
• On-site and regional programs.
• Facilitation of strategic planning and outcome measures for evaluation of maternal infant morbidity and mortality.
• Outreach loaning library of educational materials (books, video tapes, CD-ROMs, and practice models).
• Faculty resources to the university and community college system schools of nursing and all perinatal health care providers.
• A liason between tertiary care center, University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina (PCMH & Brody School of Medicine at ECU) and community hospitals, physicians' offices, and health departments.
• Bi-annual perinatal newsletter, Reachout.