This blog post was written by Lisa Read, a MomCare Advisor with the Healthy Start Coalition. MomCare is a direct service program, providing support and education to pregnant mothers on Medicaid.

The MomCare Advisors are often the first person Medicaid clients talk to and provide critical support services to expectant mothers.

MomCare is a counseling and education program for pregnant women funded by Medicaid.  The primary purpose of this program is to increase the delivery of effective evidence-based services that reduce infant mortality, reduce the number of low birth weight infants and improve the health and developmental outcomes for Medicaid recipients.

The MomCare Program serves a dual role here at the Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition.  There are four MomCare Advisors who serve Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau, and St. Johns counties.

Each week the MomCare Advisors receive a new caseload of expectant mothers.  In the month of August, the MomCare Advisors served 823 expectant mothers.  The MomCare Advisors serve as a resource in helping clients identify a prenatal care provider, access WIC and Healthy Start services, as well as providing expectant mother’s assistance in enrolling in their Managed Care Organization for their pregnancy.

In addition to assisting expectant mothers, the MomCare Advisors serve as Maternal Interviewers for the Fetal Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) program.

FIMR provides support to parents and families whose lives have been affected by the death of a child or loss of a pregnancy.  The MomCare Advisors interview mothers who have lost their babies through stillbirth or miscarriage.  This information is then looked at and discussed by the FIMR Case Review Team.

More importantly than collecting information from these mothers, the MomCare Advisors provide these women the support needed for emotional and social healing.  The MomCare Advisors provide referrals to these mothers following a loss and provide essential information about dealing with the grief associated with a loss of a child or pregnancy.

What makes MomCare such a unique program?  It is more than just a counseling and education program — it’s about establishing a personal relationship with each of our expectant mothers.  Our goal is for each of our expectant mothers to establish care and obtain the services that are needed for a healthy pregnancy.  The MomCare Advisors are usually one of the first contacts the expectant mother will have in the community.

Each MomCare Advisor has the opportunity to make a positive impact on a women’s pregnancy so each baby may have a healthy start!