NHSA's mission is to be our nation's voice in providing leadership and advocacy for health equity services and interventions that improve birth outcomes and family wellbeing.

Louisville Metro Healthy Start has added a new event for recognition of the families served by having its First Birthday Party on April 24, 2013. Healthy Start recognizes that often families do not remain in the program following the child’s first birthday.  For this reason Louisville Metro Healthy Start took the opportunity to provide health education message on early childhood development during a celebratory birthday party reception.  Graduation ceremonies are held at or near the child’s second birthday.

“I’m a first time mother…young so, it’s hard,” said 20-year-old Briana Stoner, Keimarieon’s mother, who is due to give birth to her second child May 19. ”In the last year, they helped me a whole lot with playpens and utensils that I didn’t have at home that I couldn’t purchase when I didn’t have money.”

LaDasha Downs, a mother of three, said the program helped her get Pampers for her 1-year-old baby, D’zarion Downs.

“It made a whole lot of difference, because some of them days I wouldn’t have had any Pampers, and Healthy Start provided me with Pampers,” said Downs, 30. “It helped me over until I was able to purchase them on my own.”

Celebrating healthy babies, Courier Journal