Programs to reduce infant deaths visit pregnant women, new mothers in homes

Kara Terry ’s first question wasn’t about diapers or breastfeeding, but about a farmers market.

“Did you like it? Did you try new vegetables?” she asked after she entered Zahra Younous’ Northeast Side apartment.

“Yes, I tried the, um, zucchini,” Younous answered, cradling her infant daughter, Sujud, in her arms.

Younous also brought home peaches, apples and strawberries, she told Terry. And her older daughters, 4-year-old Sidra and 2-year-old Sadan, liked the watermelon.

Terry visits about once a month as part of Columbus Public Health’s My Baby & Me program, through which trained community-health workers help Franklin County women get the information and resources they need for a healthy pregnancy, birth and first two years of their babies’ lives.

It’s one of a number of programs in the county that use free, in-home visits in an effort to reduce the county’s abysmal infant-mortality rate and strengthen families.

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Hoping to make the programs more accessible, the county’s CelebrateOne infant-mortality project has become a convener of four such programs, pulling together providers, promoting the initiatives and helping to secure funding sources and widen participation criteria.

Pregnant women, doctor’s offices and community partners can now contact CelebrateOne’s StepOne for a Healthy Pregnancy, which will ensure that women are connected with the best programs for which they qualify, said Alicia Leatherman, director of strategic initiatives at CelebrateOne.

Along with giving new parents information on pregnancy, birth and babies, the programs link women with resources that help them meet goals and needs, such as finding jobs, housing, child care or education; addressing substance abuse or domestic violence; and obtaining car seats, portable cribs or nutritious food.

“The goal is to meet the needs of the family so that they can have what they need in order to thrive in the community,” Terry said.

CelebrateOne was formed in November 2014 to reduce Franklin County’s infant-mortality rate — which reflects the number of children who die before age 1 — to the national average of 6 babies per 1,000 live births, and to cut in half the disparity in death rates between black and white infants.

It’s a difficult task. In the first six months of this year, 8,883 babies were born in the county and 86 died, a rate of 9.7 per 1,000, according to Columbus Public Health data. Black babies were 2.5 percent more likely to die than white babies.

Seeing some success is Nurse-Family Partnership, another home-visiting program in the initiative. Operated by the Center for Family Safety and Healing at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, it pairs degreed, registered nurses with expecting women.

Six nurses serve 125 to 150 families, said Justin Fogt, clinical coordinator of the center’s home-visitation programs. With additional funding sources, a goal is to double the number of nurses and families served, he said.

Nurses, who benefit from strong community trust, have seen women in the program address their negative childhood experiences and work to improve the lives of their families, said Rachel Langley, a home-visit nurse and supervisor.

“We want to make sure every mom who needs our program has it so we can really effect change in the community,” she said. “We want the Franklin County community to be full of healthy families who have the resources they need for their children to grow up, break the cycle and achieve their full potential.”

Leatherman said the home-visiting programs are based on evidence that indicates they help increase birth weights, decrease preterm births, encourage more breastfeeding and lead to developmental benefits through early childhood.

For example, Nurse-Family Partnership, in the 12 months through March 31, saw 72 babies born, 4.2 percent of them prematurely, Fogt said. That’s a significantly lower rate than the 10.6 percent rate of premature babies out of all 18,800 Franklin County births in 2017.

Along with Nurse-Family Partnership and My Baby & Me, CelebrateOne works with Healthy Families America, operated by Youth Advocate Services and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, through which social workers and other trained workers visit low-income, at-risk women; and Columbus Public Health’s Moms & Babies First, through which trained community-health workers visit at-risk, low-income black women living in 14 targeted ZIP codes.

The four programs served a combined 1,400 families in the first six months of this year, with a goal to reach 5,000 families a year by the end of 2020, Leatherman said.

Roughly $2.6 million in total annual funding comes from the Ohio Department of Health, the Ohio Department of Medicaid and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. About $540,000 more is coming from the Department of Medicaid beginning in mid-2019.

During their August visit, Terry and Younous discussed topics including breastfeeding, birth control, safe-sleep techniques and postpartum depression. They touched base on Younous’ plan to attend a Columbus State Community College course this fall that will help her improve her English-language skills as part of a path toward taking college courses.

And they were smitten by tiny Sujud as she smiled and cooed in her mother’s arms.

Younous said Terry is a good listener who has opened her up to many community resources.

“I just feel more confident,” said Younous, who came to the United States in 2015 from Chad in central Africa and is now an American citizen. “I just love her, and she makes my life easier.”