ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A new program in New Mexico aims to make sure new mothers are ready to take on the challenges of parenthood. After serving hundreds of Bernalillo County mothers, the program is getting ready to expand. News 13 spoke with one family who took advantage of the home visitation program.
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“They came out here, and they were like, ‘What do you need?'” said Maria Luna Montoya, who came into contact with the Family Connects New Mexico program in the hospital shortly after giving birth to her son Christopher nine months ago.
“You know, someone that was concerned whether my baby had a safe place to sleep or not, or she said, ‘Do you have enough diapers? Maybe I can bring you some diapers.’ And that’s also really cool because again, I had never encountered something like that,” Montoya said.
Chandra Jimenez, RN BSN, is the nurse supervisor for the program, and was the nurse who visited Montoya: “She did a house visit I believe about two weeks after Christopher was born and she came and she’s like, ‘Well, how can I help you? What can I help you with, what do you need, what resources?”
“I oversee a team of two nurses, a program support specialist, and a community alignment specialist,” Jimenez said. Her team visits moms, babies, and families three weeks post-partum after meeting with them in clinics and hospitals before they give birth. “It’s an in-between point between mom leaving the hospital and having her six-week post-partum check,” Jimenez said.
In those home visits, they do physical assessments of the babies, offer advice and information about how to keep them safe and healthy, and connect them with resources for getting supplies and services they need. “Whether that’s support with breastfeeding, or maybe the bond between mom and baby or dad and baby isn’t going well; maybe there’s some insecurities in the home. So, we are a short-term home visiting program so we are offering connections to resources within the community,” Jimenez said.
“We recognize that it can be a very exciting season, happy time, but it’s sometimes a challenging season as well,” Jimenez said.
Their goal is to offer whatever support they can to new families. “96% of families have a need and we’re there to meet families where they’re at and offer it universally and normalize home visiting,” said. Dominic Rodriguez, Northwest Region Director of the Public Health Division of the New Mexico Department of Health.
The program started in New Mexico in January 2023 and is based on a model out of North Carolina. “The model we really want to hit 60 percent of our families in our service area, and we do a really good job getting close and exceeding that,” Rodriguez said. Right now, the free program only extends to mothers who use three clinics in Bernalillo County, including Eubank Women’s Health, Northwest Valley, and West Mesa; and, give birth at UNM Hospital.
However, just this year, they’ve served 400 mothers—about 60% of families in that population—and it was enough to earn them certification from the program, meaning they can expand. “As we expand, and now that we’re certified we can, we will be able to cover all prenatal clinics that deliver at UNM Hospital, as long as the mom and the family or whomever is taking the child home is a Bernalillo County resident,” Rodriguez said,
Montoya said having this support was a heartwarming experience: “I didn’t have this kind of support with my other two kids and I wish I had.”
Family Connects New Mexico hopes to expand across the Albuquerque metro area by next year, and is working with the Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD) to see if they could expand these services across the state.
“Whether it’s their first, second, third child, every family has a need and our team is wonderful and they’ll help you navigate this period and have you down the right track,” Rodriguez said.
