Why South Carolina needs Nurse-Family Partnership

In South Carolina, first-time mothers and their babies face some serious challenges to their health and well-being.

• South Carolina’s child poverty rate is one of the highest in the nation at 24 percent
• Statewide, nearly one in 10 South Carolina infants is born at a low birth weight – for African-Americans, the rate is 5 percent higher
• Nearly 36 percent of pregnant women in South Carolina receive  less than adequate prenatal care
• Approximately 23 percent of births in South Carolina are to mothers with less than a high school education

(Data collected from the SC State Budget and Control Board)

With statistics like these, South Carolina needs a different approach to helping first-time families — one that will help support and nurture young mothers and their babies. Nurse-Family Partnership is designed to address the challenges South Carolina is facing — greatly impacting early childhood development and creating a better future for children.

Nurse-Family Partnership is one of the oldest and most rigorously evaluated home visitation programs in the country. In addition to healthy pre- and post-natal health outcomes, independent evaluations show Nurse-Family Partnership can return more than $5 to the community for each dollar invested.

As the program grows and expands in South Carolina, we expect to see positive outcome data similar to that found in the program’s randomized, controlled trials.

The initial data from South Carolina's programs are promising:
-90 percent of babies were born full term
-88 percent of babies were born at a healthy weight or above 2,500 g (5.5lbs)
-62 percent of mothers initiated breastfeeding

Nurse-Family Partnership in South Carolina