Commentary: Provide visiting nurses to at-risk young moms

Mother’s Day, the second Sunday in May, was formally established more than 100 years ago by Congress to recognize the important role mothers play in getting babies off to a good start in life.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, California’s overall poverty rate of 16% is the among the highest in the country. Worse yet, one out of every four children in California lives in poverty. Children born into poverty are at higher risk of premature birth, infant mortality, abuse, neglect and substance abuse. They are also more likely to drop out of high school and experience unemployment.

In 2013, according to Assembly Bill 50, half of all births in California were to low-income, uninsured or under-insured women, 43% of whom were 24 or younger. The result is more than 100,000 children a year born into poverty by unprepared mothers, setting in motion a perpetual cycle of poverty and related issues. We can, and should, do better. It is time to break this cycle.

NurseFamily Partnership is a voluntary prevention program that partners lowincome, pregnant women having their first child with a registered nurse who provides home visits from early in pregnancy until the child’s second birthday. With more than 37 years of evidence from randomized, controlled trials, NurseFamily Partnership has been shown to reduce premature births, low birth weights and child abuse, while improving childhood immunization rates and health screenings.

The Nurse-Family Partnership returns remarkable cost savings to a number of government-funded social service programs. Every dollar invested can yield up to $5.70 in return, according to the RAND Corp.

Currently, through a tenuous network of public grants and private funding, 21 counties in California operate a Nurse-Family Partnership program, providing service to 4,000 recipients — a mere drop in the bucket compared to the 100,000 eligible pregnant young women annually.

Orange County is fortunate to have a well-functioning Nurse-Family Partnership program. Data reported in February showed that the moms and babies participating in the Orange County program were beating the odds: 93% of babies were born full term and at a healthy weight, and 99% of children had received all immunizations by age 24 months.

The Orange County Nurse-Family Partnership program can serve up to 200 families at a time, but its resources are being stretched to the breaking point. There are three moms for every available slot. The program is a proven success, but additional funding is needed to return the kind of results that we know are possible in Orange County. Other counties across California face similar or more extreme funding problems.

California State Assembly Bill 50 would require the state to develop and implement a plan by Jan. 1, 2017, to ensure that NurseFamily Partnership and other programs that involve home visits by nurses are available to every low-income, first-time pregnant mom.

In honor of Mother’s Day, take action to break the cycle of poverty and despair. Contact your Assembly member and state senator and ask them to support AB 50 to give vulnerable young mothers and their babies a chance at good health and a good life.

JENNIFER ALLANACH lives in Newport Beach and is enrolled in the social work master’s program at USC’s Irvine campus.