Box
The numbers were disheartening — mothers and their babies were in dire need.
When Indiana health officials looked at infant mortality rates, they saw the state rate was consistently higher than the national average. In 2020, 6.6 babies died per every 1,000 live births; the United States rate was at 5.4.
Work needed to be done to help moms and babies in their most critical moments.
“For women who find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy or a complicated pregnancy — it really does take a village of people coming together to support you as a parent and to raise that healthy, confident child who’s going to be on the right trajectory for the rest of their life,” said Dr. Kris Box, state health commissioner.
A statewide program is aimed to do just that. The My Healthy Baby program offers the most vulnerable mothers and babies access to in-home care they’d otherwise never be able to afford. The statewide initiative is now available in all 92 counties in Indiana, including Johnson County, and has already shown effectiveness in improving care.
Since it launched in a limited capacity three years ago, it has already helped 12,000 women find support, Box said.
Still, a number of eligible mothers could still be helped — which makes spreading information about the program imperative.
“The goal is to get this out to women across the state,” Box said.
My Healthy Baby was launched in 2020 to connect mothers to a local family support provider for one-on-one guidance during their pregnancy, as well as after their baby is born. The program is a partnership between the Indiana Department of Health, Family and Social Services Administration and the Indiana Department of Child Services.
Officials from all three agencies recognized the importance of providing in-home resources to women while they’re pregnant, and in the months after giving birth.
“There are decades of evidence that show families who are connected to home visitors, or what we call family support providers, have improved child and maternal outcomes,” Box said. “When we look back in 2015 at the number of Indiana families who qualified for these home visits, only 11% engaged.”
My Healthy Baby became available in 22 Indiana counties initially in 2020, followed by 25 in 2021 and 35 in 2022. This year, the final 10 came on board, including Johnson County.
“This really means women with pregnancies at the highest risk of adverse outcomes can be connected to a family support provider through their entire pregnancy and at least the first year of the baby’s life,” Box said.
The goal of My Healthy Baby was to create a referral program to reach those women earlier in their pregnancy, throughout that pregnancy and at least for the first year of the baby’s life.
Women can enter the program by calling the My Healthy Baby helpline, or filling out a simple form online. Once they do that, they are connected with an individual who can direct them to early prenatal care, as well as the services they need to have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy start to their baby’s life, Box said.
They can be referred to services ranging from utility assistance and help overcoming food insecurity, to help with substance use disorder or mental health treatment.
The program can direct participants toward education resources such as earning a high school equivalency diploma or getting enrolled in college again.
“Whatever those services and connections are, that’s the goal of the individual who becomes connected to them,” Box said.
In Johnson County, the state works with groups such as Family Services and Prevention Program, as well as the Goodwill of Central and South Indiana.
Goodwill’s Nurse-Family Partnership pairs mothers pregnant with their first child with a registered nurse for ongoing home visits. The aim is to support mothers and families in providing the very best start for their children during the earliest, most developmentally critical years.
The results have been positive, according to Goodwill. Of mothers who participated in the program in 2021, 88% of their babies were born full term, and 85% were at a healthy weight or above 5.5 pounds. By 24 months, 92% of those babies were fully vaccinated.
The more women and babies who receive this kind of care, the better it will be for Indiana residents, Box said.
Thus far, My Healthy Baby has only been available to women on Medicaid. The goal is to hopefully expand it outward to include more people, Box said.
“Our desire is that, every women who becomes pregnant in the state of Indiana, if they want a family support provider to be engaged with them through pregnancy and the first year of the baby’s life, that we could eventually provide that,” she said.
