Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 17

health outcomes of individuals and contribute to pervasive
health inequities that disproportionately impact lowincome communities. When Healthy Start, a home-visiting
case management program for mothers in Chester and
the surrounding municipalities (Marcus Hook, Linwood,
Trainer, Chester Twp., Upland, Parkside, Woodlyn,
Eddystone,)	was	first	funded	by	the	Federal	government	
in 1997, the Infant Mortality and Morbidity Rate (IMMR)
in the city of Chester was 22 babies dying for every 1000
births. In 2013, that number was down to 15 in 1000, still
more than twice the rate for infants throughout Delaware
County, Pennsylvania and the nation. While fewer babies
are dying today, we know that there is still much work to
be done to reduce the IMMR and reduce existing racial
disparities in birth outcomes.

How do we know these programs work?
Healthy Start and Nurse-Family Partnership's evidencebased	programs	clearly	show	the	benefits	of 	services	in	our	
benchmark outcomes. All the mothers (100%) enrolled
in our programs access prenatal services. Babies born
to mothers enrolled in home visiting programs are less
likely to be born early and more likely to be born a healthy
weight. Moms are more likely to breastfeed, less likely to
smoke, and babies and toddlers are immunized on schedule.
Moms are more likely to delay subsequent pregnancies for
optimal future birth outcomes. Most importantly, babies
in our programs don't die - the IMMR for babies born to
mothers enrolled in home visiting programs is much lower
than the demonstrated numbers in the larger communities
that we are serving.

It does take a village!
Community members and care-providers can get
involved in the work that we are doing within CrozerKeystone Community Foundation's Women and Children's
Health Services and in forging a collective movement to
ensure	more	babies	reach	their	first	birthday	and	have	
the best possible start in life. The Baby's 1st Project
is a collective impact effort that brings together crosssector partners and leaders to work towards a Delaware
County community where more moms, dads and babies
have good health. Baby's 1st Project committees meet
on a regular basis to work on moving the needle on
a range of indicators related to birth outcomes. The
Breastfeeding Work Group seeks to increase access to
quality breastfeeding supports, community awareness of
the importance of breastfeeding and advocacy to support
and increase accommodations for lactating mothers. The
Perinatal Periods of Risk (PPOR) committee is a formal
subcommittee of the Child Death Review Team in
Delaware	County	looking	at	five	years	of 	infant	birth	and	
death data to understand the unique risks and protective
factors in our community that contribute to poor fetal

and infant health outcomes. The Baby's 1st Project Steering
Committee is guiding efforts to identify opportunities for
collective action and the Community Action Network (CAN) is
a large network of Maternal and Child Health stakeholders who
meet on a quarterly basis to examine issues of importance in this
community. We would love to see you at one of these meetings
and participating on the committees!

Referring pregnant or post-partum patients is easy -
Women and Children's Health Services is a phone call away
at	610.497.7344.		Program	participants	find	us	through	their	
provider, through word of mouth from friends and family or
through other agencies. We can send you a copy of the universal
referral form by email or fax or a woman can simply call to
speak with our intake specialist. Nurse-Family Partnership serves
mothers throughout Delaware County but women have to enroll
by the 28th week of pregnancy and must be low-income and
a	first	time	expectant	mother.		Healthy	Start	has	geographic	
limitations but can enroll any woman in the service area regardless
of income, whether she is pregnant or post-partum or whether
she has parented before. Submit a referral and we will determine
program eligibility for the appropriate program or refer them
to one of our home-visiting community partners. Program
participants in either Healthy Start or Nurse-Family Partnership
have access to civil legal assistance through the Medical Legal
Partnership, HELP: MLP. MLP attorneys work hand in hand
with home visitor staff to address unmet legal needs that impact
health for pregnant women, moms and families. We have bilingual
Spanish-speaking staff and in addition to home-visiting services,
also offer the Hispanic Resource Center, a drop-in center for
anyone	who	speaks	Spanish	as	their	first	language	in	need	of 	
translation and interpretation services, on Wednesdays from 9a.m 3p.m.	in	our	offices	at	2602	W.	9th	Street	in	Chester.		

In Delaware County, we have a wealth of home visiting
services available to families during pregnancy and in
the first years of life.

www.delcomedsoc.org

DELAWARE COUNTY MEDICINE & HEALTH

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http://www.delcomedsoc.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017

Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 1
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 2
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 3
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 4
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 5
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 6
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 7
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 8
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 9
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 10
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 11
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 12
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 13
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 14
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 15
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 16
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 17
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 18
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 19
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 20
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 21
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 22
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 23
Delaware County Medicine & Health Winter 2017 - 24
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