M4 A7 Developmental Task

The purpose of this paper is to discuss one of the tasks of family development and the life cycle theories. The task I chose was assuming mutual responsibility for child care and nurturing.

There are many things in life are great gifts, and being a parent is one. Getting the news that you are expecting a child is a speechless moment. It is a very joyful occasion and everyone is happy about what to expect over the next nine months. Baby names start flowing and in every magazine you are looking at outfits and furniture and things of that nature. But has anyone stop to think about what is cost to have this baby? What medical expenses that will be incurred during this forty weeks process. The answer is no. No one probably really cares but the hospital and the insurance company. Now it’s time to take a look at some of the cost behind the blessing of labor and delivery.

Currently, Community Prevention Partnership of Berks County, Nurse Family Partnership, home visitation Program, provides services to first time low income expectant mothers. The organization has been delivering the program for many years. Successfully, the program serves 250 families. The Berks county, Nurse Family Partnership program has served 1600 first time poor mothers, and 1250 children since it began. Most NFP clients by the time of referral are 18 years of age. Accordingly, the thirty-one percent of this first-time mothers receives Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) and about fifty five percent are receiving Medicaid assistance. In fact, the household income average is 16, 000 and fifty two percent of mothers have not obtained a high school or GED diploma. Indeed, NFP outcomes involves maternal and child’s development education, referral and follow ups. Also, the program encourages breastfeeding, immunization updates developmental screenings. It has reduced smoking during pregnancy by 16.9% as well as prematurity rate by 4.5 %. (Michalopoulos, Lee, Duggan, Lundquist, Tso, Crowne, Burrell, Somers, Filene, & Knox, 2015).

The Kentucky Coalition of Nurse Practitioners and Nurse Midwives (KCNPNM) have concerns with three major medical and political issues. One of those issues is a concern about health care to the poor and uninsured. According to the KCNPNM (2014), Kentucky alone has 20% of the population at or below 100% poverty and 41% under 200% poverty in 2007. Their focus on this is driven by the fact that those uninsured suffer negatively, including premature death and illness, due to lack of medical care (KCNPNM, 2014). As a group, they make an effort to provide the underserved community with information regarding available healthcare programs (KCNPNM, 2014). They also work to encourage legislation to aid those without health insurance by reaching out and informing local and regional lawmakers of our due diligence to promote health in all populations (KCNPNM, 2014).

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) policy of 1975 establishes various programs to address the issue of malnutrition in Women, Infants, and Children (Khanani, Elam, Hearn, Camille, and Noble, 2010). In an attempt to tackle the problem, the bill established a program to supply foodstuffs to breastfeeding mothers, children under the age of five and food formulae for infants that for medical reasons may not be breastfed (Davis et al., 2014). The program also provides breast pumps and ensures prolonged eligibility for families living below the US poverty line families enjoying other benefits devised for the financially challenged. Two social welfare policies evident in this program include redistribution and social control since the

The Affordable Care Reform Act was passed to bring changes and improvement in the nursing field and health care system. There are many reasons that influenced the execution of the health care law. Many citizens from low-income families were unable to cater for their medical expenses. There was a shortage of nurses that were necessary to meet the high demands of the growing population. It is observed that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act has brought significant effects and changes to the practice of public health and community health nursing (Koh & Sebelius, 2010).

Maintaining healthy lifestyles such as eating healthy diets as well as proper health care can improve outcomes for mother and infants. WIC participants are more likely to receive adequate prenatal care. This in turn means longer pregnancies and infants are born with higher birth weights. Adequate maternal health and nutrition can reduce some of the leading risk for infant mortality such as low birth weight and prematurity ("Women, Infant and Children," 2015). Premature infants have longer hospital stays and additional health expenses then babies that are born full term. Children enrolled in WIC programs are also more likely to receive regular health

The condition of homelessness for a pregnant woman creates all kinds of complexities to their care. The Nurse-Family Partnership and Invest in Kids program in Denver is a provider dedicated to forming relationships with patients and sending skilled nurses to help at risk mothers and their children. The health assessment needs of homeless pregnant women revolve greatly around prenatal health, nutrition, mental health, substance abuse and physical abuse screenings.

The amount of care a newborn child needs is immense, in some cases this is like a full-time job. Parents who are not able to give this nurturing to their child negatively affect the overall well-being of the child. Most emotional and psychological problems arise from the way a child was taken care of from birth all the way through adolescence. However, not every pregnant woman is able to provide for her child due to finances, relationship stability, age, living conditions or

This research papers purpose was to assess the impact of Medicaid expansion on pregnant mothers and their newborn children. Issues explored were the history Medicaid, current perceptions regarding the program and its recipients, the benefits of Medicaid and the reasons that some states have chosen to opt out of the expansion. The methodology used for this study was to research peer reviewed articles and journals to determine the positive and negative effects of Medicaid expansion and compare data from states that have implemented program expansion to those states that have chosen to abstain. Information was gathered from all stages of development from conception, to school age children. When comparing the potential advantages and costs of Medicaid expansion the research findings indicate a substantial benefit regarding access to care, prenatal and postnatal services for mothers with Medicaid as compared to those mothers without insurance. Although Medicaid insurance and benefits are costly, research data indicated that providing these services can result in a significant savings by offering preventative screening and by avoiding the utilization of expensive emergency services. Additionally, research indicated that Medicaid recipients reported better rates of health care satisfaction and wellbeing than those who were uninsured.

Since this demographic faces many internal and external barriers, services have arisen in the DC area to provide aid. On a broader level, programs like WIC and Medicaid provide appropriate food and medical care to this population. However, on the local level, organizations such as Mary’s Center, the Community of Hope, and the Developing Families Centers have provided numerous minorities with health and prenatal care (Bowser). Out of these organizations, the Community of Hope and the Developing Families Center specifically target low income and pregnant African Americans.

Public health nurses visit with the expectant mom, giving the mom guidance on healthy pregnancies. These nurses provide home visits to the mom to ensure proper prenatal care, give the mom information on caring for an infant and they continue to visit the home until the child turns two-years old.

Meeting these goals will help the disparity in the community. The public health nurse is out in the community, they can see what changes in the community need to be done to better the health in the population. They work with the local health departments to understand what the greatest need is for funding to make the improvements in the community. As the American Public Health Association reports, “only 3 percent of our health care spending is focused on prevention and public health, when chronic conditions—the most common, costly and preventable of all health problems— account for 86 percent of our health care costs”. The Health Care Reform has made a special funding geared toward public health. As the American Public health Association reports, “the Prevention Fund is the nation’s first mandatory funding stream dedicated to public health programs”. A compentcy in the public health nurses position would be to collaborate with the community, local businesses, health oraginazations and local health departments to address the need of the community. Garcia et al. (2014) explain, “an important skill is learning how to develop collaborative community partnerships to

Nies, M. A., & McEwen, M. (2015). Community/Public health nursing: Promoting the health populations (6th ed.). St. Louis, MO:

This community resource utilizes nurses in several different methods in order to help women with postpartum. In this program, nurses are members of the profession because they assess and evaluate the patient needs and communicate with the medical team the care needed to be implemented in order to provide the patient with the proper resources, to promote a successful and positive postpartum experience. As well as working with members of the health care profession to assist the patient for an optimal outcome for the mother and baby.