Program pairs first-time mothers with nurses

Program pairs first-time mothers with nurses

Bohling is helping Jackson and about 20 other local mothers with advice on everything from breastfeeding to building job skills.

The Nurse Family Partnership managed by the Cowlitz County Health Department pairs nurses with low-income expectant women.

The goal of the federally funded program, which costs $374,000 per year, is to improve the health of both mothers and babies and help the moms set employment and educational goals.

National studies have shown that such programs help reduce child abuse, emergency room visits and behavioral and intellectual problems in the kids when they get older.

For Jackson, 23, and her fiancé, 28-year-old Kyle McClure, the program is like having a new friend who's an expert on childbirth and parenting.

The expectant parents were paired with Bohling, who is one of two visiting nurses in the Nurse Family Partnership.

Bea Rush, a county health department nurse in charge of the program, said the workers help moms enlist family and friends for support during pregnancy, and they also refer them to other health services that are available.

There's no requirement that nurse visits continue until the baby is 2, the upper age limit.

Nurses meet expectant moms at their homes or at the health department.

"Where there's a lot of stress and low income, those folks tend to smoke," Rush said, though many of the women in program quit or cut back by the time their babies are born.

During her visits, Bohling weighs babies and checks that circumcisions and umbilical cords are healing well, though babies still need to see pediatricians for full checkups.

Nurses in the program take a week-long specialized training in Denver and get continued training in assessment skills.

McClure is more than willing to help with diaper changes and other parenting skills he's nurtured through the program to help little Taven.