(Springfield, MO) -- What's now a quiet section of the Jordan Valley Community Health Center (JVCHC) will soon be bustling with activity.

A $1.4 million grant from the United States Department of Health and Human Services helped fund what will now house a unique woman's health program called Our Healthy Start.

It's a partnership between JVCHC, St. Johns Hospital, WIC, and the Doula Foundation.

"This partnership represents just a significant opportunity for us to make sure, really make sure that our moms have access to health care," says Mary Ellison, the coordinator of WIC.

The goal is to get women more access to health care. The only requirements: you have to be pregnant and not have a health care provider.

"What we hope is, they come here to have their babies and then they have a medical home for their health care needs," says JVCHC's Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM), Carla Boone.

Boone is the only CNM in Springfield.

"There haven't been nurse midwifes in the hospital until me. So, I'm the very first one," says Boone.

She brings with her a different kind of care.

"I can deliver babies. I can take care of problem pregnancies with my physician, and I can take care of babies," says Boone.

In doing those tasks, she frees up physicians to deal with surgeries and high-risk pregnancies.

In the past five years, over 50-percent of Greene Co. births were to medicaid mothers. That percentage goes up every year. In 2008, of 3,645 births, 1,918 were to mothers on medicaid.

meaning, more than half of those pregnant will benefit from the program with shorter waits, and more options.