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Jackie Rassner spent the fall of 2013 pacing the halls of her small condo. She was trying to comfort her 6-week-old daughter, who largely spent the hours between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. crying.
She held the baby, she walked with the baby, she tried everything the message boards said and friends suggested. But her baby kept crying.
Ultimately, a friend suggested she seek help; soon someone visited from the Erikson Institute’s Fussy Baby Network. Along with discussing the baby, she was also given a screening for postpartum depression. From there, Rassner began therapy and felt the relief of finding help, and feeling less alone.
“It was just someone to be like, ‘Here, let me help you, let me tell you what to do,’” she said.
Soon, more Chicago parents will receive similar help.
Tuesday, the city’s Department of Public Health launched a nurse home-visiting service for Chicago families with newborns. Called Family Connects Chicago, it will be free and available initially at four hospitals — Rush University Medical Center, Norwegian American Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital and St. Bernard Hospital. Officials want the service in all Chicago birthing hospitals within five years.
“This is a time of opportunity for all families,” said Health Department Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady. “We’re just really excited to be doing something new and innovative for Chicago in this space.”
Similar home visits have been offered through a pilot program in both Peoria and Stephenson counties; officials said this week’s announcement is the first time such an effort has been undertaken for all families at participating hospitals and at no cost.
The home visits by registered nurses, about three weeks after birth, will include a health assessment of both mother and baby, including weight checks and tips for safe sleep and feeding, along with an anxiety and depression screening. Nurses will provide education on newborn care and assess any other needs.
Anyone can participate, including foster and adoptive parents. Parents will be offered enrollment while recovering in hospital rooms after birth.
Targeting a check-in at a few weeks after birth is intentional, Arwady said.
“Immediately after a baby is born, there tends to be a fair bit of excitement,” she said. Relatives visit, friends offer to help. But a few weeks later are when needs become present or change. One parent might return to work; a baby or a mother might see symptoms emerge for various health issues just as parents lose some support.
Officials said the project will also aim to improve maternal and infant health outcomes. In Illinois, premature birth rates are so high that the March of Dimes annual report card recently gave both Chicago and the state a D+.
And so many Illinois women have died during pregnancy or after childbirth that the state Health Department convened a committee to examine such births and try to improve outcomes. Black moms, in particular, are six times more likely to die from pregnancy-related conditions.
This week the state’s Health Department announced a planned postpartum clinic at the University of Illinois at Chicago that will simultaneously treat moms and babies. A $9.5 million grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration will be used to serve hundreds of postpartum women and infants after the clinic opens in late 2020.
In announcing the grant and clinic, Illinois Department of Public Health director Dr. Ngozi Ezike added that the state’s 2018 Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Report revealed a need for focusing on social factors that affect maternal health, like violence, lack of trust in providers or limited access to care.
Angela Moss, assistant dean at Rush University’s College of Nursing, said having someone come to a patient’s home will create a space for moms to consider their own health. Among issues that can present weeks after birth are hypertension, anxiety and depression, and other major health problems can present or persist for months. Moms paying attention to newborns but not themselves might not notice symptoms or seek help, she said. A nurse visit provides a time to thoroughly check in.
“Those questions kind of force the mom to recenter and think about taking care of herself,” Moss said.
After receiving help in caring for her first baby and herself, Rassner now has three children; her oldest daughter is 6. She helps coordinate support for other moms as a program associate for the Jewish United Fund’s jBaby Chicago group.
She said having such visits are vital, because women might not know what is normal or not normal for a new baby, or for themselves.
“When it’s your first baby, you don’t know,” she said. “Everything has felt weird in your body for nine months, so why not continue to feel weird?”