Erica Fernandez was surprised to answer her door early one morning and find Eastgate Public Health nurse Shane Khaki. After a difficult, high-risk pregnancy during which she developed pre-eclampsia, Fernandez’s son had been born three weeks early and had just returned home after spending a week in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
Fatigued and having trouble breastfeeding, Fernandez was at her wits end after speaking to five different lactation specialists. She quickly found comfort and support in Khaki.
“(The other doctors) were horrible. They made me feel like a bad mom,” said Fernandez. “Shane (Khaki) was more like a friend, and she gave me such a peace of mind.”
Over the next year, Khaki regularly visited Fernandez and her son, Mason, thanks to the Maternity Support Services program. Through the service, Khaki covered everything from healthy eating habits to physical and emotional development to monitoring Fernandez’s health.
Fernandez is just one of many women in Bellevue who have received support through the Maternity Support Services program. Every day, Khaki sees three to four clients in Bellevue, Issaquah, Sammamish, the Snoqualmie Valley and part of Redmond. She is the only full-time MSS nurse at Eastgate Public Health, with one additional part-time nurse.
Eastgate Public Health had more than 1,500 Maternity Support Services/Infant Care Management clients in 2013. Across King County, the public health system provided these services to more than 30,000 women that year.
The Maternity Support Services program is one of many Eastside programs that would receive additional funding under the county’s Best Starts for Kids initiative, which was approved as a November ballot measure by the county council on July 22.
Under Best Starts for Kids, a proposed six-year levy would provide funding for prevention and early intervention programs designed to increase the number of King County children and youth who reach adulthood healthy.
The majority of funding would go towards local organizations, as decided by each community. About 12 percent would go toward clinic services like MSS.
But, after a 35 percent cut to the MSS program a few years ago, that small amount of funding would provide stability to Eastgate’s and other health centers programs.
“Last year, with all of the cuts that have come over time, we fell off of the cliff,” said Patty Hayes, Director, Public Health for Seattle and King County. “The great thing is that it’s going to give some money to make sure the program that we have with the funding to maintain these services.”
Home visiting, as opposed to relying solely on check-ups at a primary care doctor’s office, provides a window into the life of the mother and baby, said Robin Laurence, personal health services supervisor at Eastgate Public Health Center.
Khaki has worked with new mothers in abusive relationships or in unhealthy living situations. Others have been addicted to drugs or alcohol, or have postpartum depression. But generally, Khaki is helping new mothers, sometimes teenagers, often from other parts of the world.
In mild cases, visiting the homes can help correct unadvised or unhealthy behaviors that mothers may not report to a primary care doctor. In one instance, Khaki visited a home where the grandmother had been instructing the new mom to put her baby to sleep on its stomach, placing it at higher risk for SIDS.
“If we can detect these things early on, that can prevent an emergency room visit,” said Khaki. “A lot of the time, it’s just about educating the clients.”
Clinic services funding programs like MSS and others targeting newborn children through age five will be a substantial part of Best Starts for Kids, in accordance with the county’s focus on early prevention and assistance. Local communities will reap the benefits, said Hayes.
“Public health is like the grounding you need for everything else to bloom,” she said.
This story has been updated to correct a spelling error.
