The overall goal of the program is to improve the oral health and overall health of low-income prenatal and postpartum women and children in Maryland. This manual is designed to highlight our journey toward this goal and serve as a roadmap for others.

This project began as result of the UMB prenatal oral health program (UMB-POH) that links prenatal patients from the University of Maryland School of Medicine‘s Women’s Health Center to the University of Maryland School of Dentistry and led by the PI, Lisa Bress, RDH MS & Chief, of the Dental Hygiene division. These experiences and collaborations defined an opportunity to build a state-wide advisory board that included individuals with lived experience to address barriers to oral health care access witnessed in the UMB-POH and reported in the literature.