GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — A Gaston County program serving low-income and at-risk mothers is in jeopardy, as federal funding for the resource is set to expire with no reauthorization in sight.
The program, called Nurse-Family Partnership, is mostly funded by the federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV).
It helps Gaston County first-time moms like Jennifer Helm have a healthy pregnancy and baby while getting connected to the resources she needs.
Helm signed up for the program four years ago when she was pregnant with her daughter Cora.
Through Nurse-Family Partnership, she worked with home visitation nurse Beth Willis for free.
"Beth is now -- we consider her family," Helm told WCNC Charlotte. "We love her to death."
Willis explained that the job of visiting nurses is to "give support that [the moms] may not have gotten growing up.”
Helm said she and Cora, who is now 3 years old, are better off thanks to Willis.
"She got me into therapy, she helped with a lot of things that I would not have had access to,” Helm shared.
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According to the Pew Research Center, nurse home visiting programs improve children’s cognitive and vocabulary scores, increase parent employment rates, and reduce abuse and neglect of high-risk children by 48%.
"We follow first-time moms throughout pregnancy, getting them ready for delivery and what to expect, and we also follow the baby until the baby turns 2,” Willis explained.
From prenatal to postpartum care, health screenings, and connecting moms to resources like Medicaid and jobs, the visitation program relies on federal funding, which is set to expire at the end of September.
MIECHV is funded on a five-year term and requires Congressional action to renew the money. However, the program said there has been no sign of reauthorization so far.
"We won’t have the money to be able to keep the program going in Gaston County, and there will be a lot of moms that will not be able to be served,” said Gaston County supervisor Ann Stroupe.
Stroupe said the county resource gets about $500,000 to help up to 100 mothers a year.
The nurse visitation program is in 15 counties in North Carolina and says it served 561 families statewide. Now, the state’s Home Visiting Coalition is calling on Congress to act before it’s too late.
Contact Julia Kauffman at jkauffman@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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