What's Working: Nurse-Family Partnership

The staff from the National Office.

It's not often when you can find a program that receives bipartisan support from both political parties. That is true for the NURSE-FAMILY PARTNERSHIP, which focuses on first-time mothers who have low incomes. Originating in Colorado, this program has spread through local implementing agencies to other parts of the country. It utilizes home visits, a tradition with which nurses are very familiar, as support for new mothers and their babies.

The visits, however, don't wait for the baby's birth to start. They begin during pregnancy and last until the child is two years old. The focus is on education, providing information about normal development, giving support, teaching parenting skills, and promoting the young mother's autonomy.



Many of the young mothers have become pregnant while they are still in high school, so they are at high risk to drop out of school and to spend the rest of their lives only able to earn a low income, if even that. But in the short time since its inception, this program is making a significant difference.

We health care practitioners tend to look at statistics in order to develop evidence-based practices, that utilize interventions that can offer the best results. That is what Nurse-Family Partnership is doing. Some of its outcomes include a 48 percent reduction in child abuse and has increased employment among the mothers by 82 percent. That result is what has raised notice among members of Congress, which recently allotted $800 million dollars to the program. Even more impressive has been the effect on the children. More of these youngsters are showing up for school better prepared.

And that's no surprise, either, since the program has been teaching mothers how to spend time interacting with their babies, guiding them to learn more about the world around them. It's how many middle class parents interact with their babies. So, the mothers who participate in the program are talking more to their babies, reading to them, and using simple props to enhance language development. Fewer of the children who have been in the program have shown behavior problems when they enter the school system.

Many of these simple techniques are based on neuro-behavioral techniques that are derived from laboratory work. This has helped experts understand how babies' brains develop during the early years. It has allowed the Partnership to focus on the aiding the developing brain structure, giving children that boost they need to start school on an equal footing with other students.

A mother giving her child a learning experience among the pumpkins.

For those who are interested in supporting this program with monetary donations, the Nurse-Family Partnership is a four-star charity, as noted by Charity Navigator. It is also a GuideStar Exchange Gold Participant, so rated for the effectiveness of its program results.

Parental interaction with babies is very important for their development.

Thanks for information from this article from PBS Newhour: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/how-home-visits-for-vulnerable-moms-boost-kids-brainpower/; plus the above link.

Click here to view more details