PRENATAL VISITATION PROGRAM OFFERS HELP TO LOW-INCOME EXPECTANT MOTHERS IN AREA

Wanted: Low-income women expecting their first baby interested in improving their pregnancy outcome and child health and develop as well as setting and meeting life goals.

Beginning this week, such woman can apply to enroll in the Building Blocks program. Building Blocks is a new prenatal and early childhood home visitation program operated by Southeast Missouri Hospital's Home Health Service through a $127,000 grant from the Missouri Department of Health.

Women accepted into this program, one of two pilot programs in the state, receive free home visits by specially trained registered nurses through pregnancy and until the child's second birthday, said Sheila King, one of the program's home visit nurses. During the visits, the nurse provides the mother with health and child development information, assists the mother with family and community resources and helps the mother develop a vision of her own future.

"We're like mothers to this mother," said Barbara Rauh Powell, administrator of the Building Blocks program. "We're there to show them how to do things, to be a role model they might not have otherwise."

The program, which began accepting applications this week, can accept 50 clients. King said they are trying to spread the word about the program through high school and university counselors, county health centers and others who provide low-cost reproductive services and through putting up flyers explaining the program.

Clients must meet certain income and residency requirements and be less than 28 weeks along in their pregnancy.

"We provide a lot of prenatal information in preparation for the birth," Kin said. "If we don't start prior to the 28th week, there's not enough time to get it all in."

Once a woman is accepted into the program, a nurse will begin regular visits to the woman's home covering subjects according to the Olds model, a system developed by a Colorado doctor and proven by 20 years of clinical trials to produce positive results.

Visits made during the woman's pregnancy emphasize things like nutrition and healthy habits, signs of preterm labor, discomforts during pregnancy and how to relieve them, the types of testing the mother may need, the importance of prenatal doctor visits and what to expect during them, said Veronica Benoit, a Building Blocks home visit nurse.

She said Building Block nurses do not provide medical care, though their training as nurses can help them spot medical problems. Rather the nurses try to help pregnant clients access the medical care they need.

After the birth of the baby, the focus of the visits shift to caring for and interacting with the baby, child development and parenting skills, Benoit said.

During all the visits, nurses help clients with accessing community services and life course development. The latter involves talking to clients about birth spacing and how to avoid getting pregnant, getting an education and setting and working toward goals.

"We don't preach to the clients," Benoit said. "We just help them find the answers they already have."

"The model is strength-based," King said. "We focus on the positive to build self-esteem. We are trained in developing a relationship with clients."

If this pilot program for Building Blocks is as successful here as it has been elsewhere, the program may be expanded throughout the state, Powell said.

In clinical trials of the model done over the last 20 years, the cost of the program is recovered by the child's fourth birthday and projected costs savings over the child's lifetime are four times greater than the cost of the program, Powell said. Government savings are based on reduction in health services, taxes from increased employment, reduction in welfare costs and reduction in criminal justice costs.

Powell said research shows the program produces better health practices during pregnancy, reduces child abuse and neglect, reduces heath care encounters for injuries and reduces the incidence of crime among the mothers and their children.

In addition the program has produced an increase in the rates of labor force participation and household income among clients and a decrease in AFDC participation and alcohol and drug abuse problems.