Oregon is Putting Babies First With Innovative Program

Babies do not come with directions but many new parents wish they did. Now, a new program in Oregon is working to remedy that by providing nurses that come to the homes of every newborn in the state. These visiting nurses are part of a program called Family Connects.

The program supports parents by linking them to the community through visiting nurses, services, and resources to ensure that babies are given the best care possible, according to the Family Connects website. This no-charge voluntary program is open to all.

With the US having one of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates of wealthy countries, reported NPR, this program is trying to change that by putting babies – and their families – wellbeing first.

About Family Connects
Family Connects gives any family in the state one to three visits from a visiting nurse in the first few weeks after a new baby is born. While Oregon is enacting it state wide, the program was developed in Durham, North Carolina and was so successful that there was a big drop in emergency room visits for newborns. It showed that giving parents information and support works.

The first year of a child’s life is crucial, and parental instincts are not always enough, sometimes it takes a village, reported CBS News. Speaking about the Durham program, Kenneth Dodge from Duke University and the founder of Family Connects told CBS “Parenting is more positive and then in the long run, we found important outcomes such as lower child abuse rates and lower health care costs for emergency room visits for injuries and illnesses.”

This is why Dr. Elizabeth Steiner, who is probably the biggest reason why the Family Connects program came to Oregon, though it should be implemented in the state, reported NPR.
“Babies are just hard,” she told NPR; ”so I was very intrigued by this idea.” Besides being a doctor, she is also a state senator as well as a mother. Her interest came from her own personal experience.

Steiner explained that she developed postpartum depression two days after the birth of her daughter. While this is common and affects one-in-seven new mothers, Steiner said that she could have used the support system Family Connects provides.

“Nobody should have to go through that,” Steiner said; “nobody. And having a trained nurse come into my home when my baby was two weeks old and say, ‘Ooooh, OK, let’s get you some help here,’ would have been transformative.”

Since every family has different needs, the connect part of the program works by getting families the resources they need, whether it is help with food insecurity, housing, mental health counseling, or even child care to allow new parents to finish degrees online.

The cost of care is worth it
When researching the Durham program, there was a real return on the investment but the roll-out in Oregon has been a bit of a struggle. The plan is to have insurance companies pay the cost of nurses but that is still a work in progress. The timing was also problematic as the pandemic got in the way.

While it isn’t that expensive to run the program in a city the size of Durham, offering it statewide in Oregon where much of the state is rural, is really a horse of a different color. Steiner said she expected the nurse’s visits to cost around $400 or $500 per family. “Turns out, it’s probably more like $1,300, at least here in Oregon. And that was a problem,” she said. “In Oregon, we have a lot of places where people live many, many miles apart.”

But going to families instead of making them travel with newborns is part of what makes the program so beneficial. “I like that [the nurse] comes over to my house instead of me driving over there,” said Veronica De Paz, a new mom in Jefferson County. “I can’t drive. So my husband would have to get out of work and then take me over there. And I like that [the nurse] can come into your house and just, kind of like friends, like vibe, here at the house.”

Still, Steiner believes that the ends justify the costs. This is a program that can be implemented all across the US. Putting babies first  provides a lifetime of benefits and that is truly priceless.