{"id":191213,"date":"2026-05-13T13:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/191213\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T13:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:38:09","slug":"community-baby-shower-offers-support-to-families-in-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/191213\/","title":{"rendered":"Community baby shower offers support to families in Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 60 expectant mothers and families received pregnancy support resources and more during a community baby shower at the AmeriHealth Caritas Pennsylvania Wellness Center.<\/p>\n

The special event took place Tuesday at the Wellness Center at the former Wells Fargo building, 600 Penn St.<\/p>\n

AmeriHealth Caritas is a Medicaid-managed care organization serving millions of members across 13 states and Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

AmeriHealth hosted the baby shower through its Bright Start<\/a> program to support healthy pregnancies and babies.<\/p>\n

The program provides expectant mothers health information, nutrition advice and help in choosing an obstetrician or a nurse midwife for prenatal care.<\/p>\n

Each mom-to-be who attended the baby shower received a gift bag containing necessities for newborns and their mothers, AmeriHealth said in a release.<\/p>\n

\"ExpectantExpectant mothers receive support and resources during a community baby shower Tuesday at the AmeriHealth Caritas Pennsylvania Wellness Center, 600 Penn St. (Courtesy of AmeriHealth Caritas)<\/p>\n

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, the shower also focused on the mental health challenges of perinatal depression and anxiety, which are among the most common complications of childbirth.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntreated postpartum depression poses serious health risks to both the mother and baby,\u201d AmeriHealth said. \u201cIt is a serious mental health condition that can cause severe bonding issues, long-term health problems for the mother, and in extreme cases, thoughts of suicide or harming the infant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mental health conditions, including suicide and drug overdose related to postpartum depression and substance use disorder, are the leading cause of preventable pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S., accounting for over 20% of such fatalities, AmeriHealth noted.<\/p>\n

Over 80% of those deaths are considered preventable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis community baby shower was an opportunity to let moms and families know they are not alone and that support is available throughout pregnancy and beyond,\u201d said Melissa Farenish, community outreach manager at AmeriHealth Caritas Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

The shower also allowed AmeriHealth to raise awareness of issues like premature birth, and provide resources and information, the agency said.<\/p>\n

In 2025, Pennsylvania received a \u201cC\u201d grade on the March of Dimes Premature Birth Report Card for its preterm birth rate of 9.7%, according to AmeriHealth.<\/p>\n

In Berks County, the preterm birth rate was 10.3%.<\/p>\n

During 2022-24 in Pennsylvania, preterm birth rates were highest for Black infants (13.8%), followed by Hispanics (10.4%), whites (8.7%) and Asians (8.5%).<\/p>\n

\u201cAmeriHealth Caritas Pennsylvania works to reduce pregnancy-related complications and support healthier births by providing prenatal education, outreach and connections to care,\u201d AmeriHealth said. \u201cThe baby showers also allow the health plan to build collaborative relationships with community-based organizations that specialize in services for maternal health.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 60 expectant mothers and families received pregnancy support resources and more during a community baby shower…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,182,139,28,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-191213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}