Helping Families Have Healthy Babies

Organization Information:

Organization Name:
MOMS Orange County
City & State:
Santa Ana, 
California
Organization Website:
www.MOMSOrangeCounty.org
Organization's Mission Statement

The mission of MOMS Orange County is to help women and their families have healthy babies by offering health care coordination, education, and access to community services.

Submission Information

Impact Essay

The mission of MOMS is to help women and their families have healthy babies by offering health care coordination, education, and access to community services. MOMS is a uniquely qualified community-based organization that provides access to prenatal care, health screenings, developmental screenings, health education and referral services to more than 5,000 low-income pregnant and parenting women in underserved communities in Orange County each year. Under nurse supervision, MOMS mothers and their babies receive one-on-one education and support during pregnancy and through the baby’s first birthday through monthly home visits and group classes.

 

During pregnancy, our programs focus on measures to increase the mother's chance of delivering a healthy baby. After birth, the focus is on promoting the infant's healthy development by:

• Establishing a medical home • Tracking immunizations

• Promoting nutrition • Educating parents on early brain stimulation

• Screening for achievement of developmental milestones • Modeling positive play

• Enhancing parenting skills • Promoting early literacy.

One key element to MOMS approach is that staff shares the same culture and language of the mother and are able to gain the trust and confidence through a personalized relationship developed over time. This enables staff to observe a mother and her baby in their home on multiple occasions - allowing for unique opportunities to identify potential developmental risks and health issues that would benefit from early interventions.

MOMS efforts have resulted in improved birth outcomes and improved infant and maternal health. MOMS has been recognized by the Health Care Agency of Orange County, the Children & Families Commission of Orange County, the California Department of Health Services, and the United States Congress for its innovative work in the community and impact on the health of women and babies in Orange County.

 

The “Real OC” - Realities for Families Living in Orange County

Despite the perceived wealth in Orange County, more than 40% of the 45,000 babies born each year are born to families living in poverty. Low-income, medically underserved women are at higher risk for delivering infants with poor birth outcomes and subsequent health problems. Poverty is a significant factor that can cause poor birth and maternal outcomes-including gestational diabetes, premature birth, medical complications, and maternal depression. Poor birth outcomes and maternal health outcomes have severe long-term ramifications and costs to the community but can be reduced or eliminated with programs provided by MOMS. Although MOMS acknowledges that it can’t change the income status of families, it strongly believes it can impact a baby’s and mother’s life-long health by providing education, guidance, and resources to empower mothers to change attitudes and beliefs and adopt healthy lifestyle behaviors.

 

Technology is an integral part of MOMS service delivery, outcomes reporting; fundraising and marketing efforts, and general business operations. In 2006, through TechSoup’s support of Microsoft products, MOMS was able to modernize mission-critical hardware and software utilized to support clinical operations and outcomes evaluation. MOMS serves 5,000 new mothers and their families each year. A client's length of service can last as long as 18 months. Each client's demographic information, monthly assessment results, care plans, referrals, and outcomes are entered and tracked in a central database. MOMS health coordinators and clinical staff depend on the accuracy and immediate availability of this data to make clinical recommendations and provide the best possible care to clients. Staff leadership, program evaluators, and the board of directors depend on this data to make programmatic, operational and financial decisions.

The improved technology supported by Microsoft has significantly increased MOMS capacity to provide direct client services to more clients. Additionally, the redesigned databases allow for increased capacity and efficiency in data collection, data analysis and outcomes reporting which impacts MOMS ability to produce evidence that demonstrates the productivity and effectiveness of its programs. Below are specific examples of how this technology upgrade has allowed for optimal mission delivery:

v The new database allows MOMS to collect and extrapolate data with much more efficiency and accuracy.

v The decrease in tech support costs has allowed for increased funding to provide direct client services to more families in need.

v The decrease in computer downtime and troubleshooting has allowed for increased agency-wide productivity and service capacity (more clients served).

 

MOMS Orange County is extremely grateful and recognizes the impact that technology has on its mission-oriented services and program goals. Due to the TechSoup’s support, MOMS continues to help families have healthy babies and improve the health and quality of life for all children in Orange County.

Submission Category
Optimize Mission Delivery
Project Image
MOMS Logo Final.jpg
Supporting Work Files