By Meredith Gardner
meredith.gardner@theindependent.com

From 2 to 4 p.m., women who are pregnant or are planning to become pregnant are invited to stop by St. Francis Conference Rooms 3 and 4 to enjoy games, prizes, gifts, refreshments and educational materials.

The goal of the event is to provide women with information about parenting and pregnancy well before they become parents, said Lana McCoy, a registered nurse and the outreach education coordinator at the St. Francis Family Birthing Center.

Representatives from a number of local organizations, including Child Care Solutions, the Central District Health Department, Birthright, Central Nebraska Community Services, Safe Kids Tri-Cities and the Crisis Center, among others, will be on hand to answer questions.

Information will be available about a variety of pre-conception education issues as well as prenatal and postnatal classes, including infant massage, childbirth education, Healthy Starts and breast-feeding.

Attendees will also have the chance to take a tour of the new birthing center at St. Francis and learn about doctors affiliated with the hospital.

Shower-goers will be free to come and go as they please and don't have to be present to win the offered prizes, McCoy said.

Planning for a pregnancy can begin well before conception, McCoy said, and quality prenatal care is important to ensuring mothers and babies are healthy.

St. Francis is also working on organizing other new prenatal classes, such as yoga, to encourage good health, she said.

Using grants provided by the March of Dimes and the St. Francis Medical Center Foundation, the hospital will hold additional community baby showers on July 26, Oct. 18 and Jan. 24, 2009.

McCoy encouraged women to plan on attending one of the showers before they become pregnant or early in pregnancy.

"(You) don't have to wait until the end of pregnancy to address healthy lifestyles," McCoy said.