NFP Benefits ...

Some of the benefits of being a member of NCHD's Nurse-Family partnership include:

• Home visits from nurses during your pregnancy and through your child's second birthday
• Answers to your questions about pregnancy, labor and delivery
• Information about your child's care and development
• Support for family needs and links to community resources

In addition, evidence of the program's effects have been measured in controlled studies and consistent benefits have been found for low-income mothers and their children. Some of those benefits include improvements in women's prenatal health, reductions in children's health care encounters for injuries, few subsequent pregnancies and increases in the interval between first and second births, and reductions in the use of welfare and food stamps.

Also, in a 15-year follow-up study of the first program, which was in introduced in Elmira, New York, some of the benefits for low-income unmarried women and their children are listed below:

• 79% reduction in child abuse and neglect
• 44% reduction in maternal behavioral problems due to their use of alcohol and drugs
• 69% fewer arrests among the mothers
• 54% fewer sexual partners among the 15-year-old adolescents
• 28% fewer cigarettes smoked and 51% fewer days consming alcohol among the 15-year-old children
• $4 saved for every dollar invested