Access to prenatal care is a challenge for poor, uninsured women who don’t speak English. And once their babies are born, pediatric care can also be hard to get. KPBS Health Reporter Kenny Goldberg says for the last five years, a San Diego program has helped more than 1,000 low-income women and their children get a healthy start in life. | Video Credit: Katie Euphrat
By Kenny Goldberg
Access to prenatal care is a challenge for poor, uninsured women who don’t speak English. And once their babies are born, pediatric care can also be hard to get.
Since 2007, a San Diego program has helped more than one thousand low-income women and their children get a healthy start in life.
Maria Barraza’s first stop on this Tuesday morning is to see a client in an apartment in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego. She greets her client, Elena Trujillo, with a hug and a kiss.
“Hola, como estás? Muy bien, gracias.”
Barraza is an outreach worker for the California Border Healthy Start Project, a program run by Project Concern International.
Elena Trujillo is seven months pregnant.
Barraza’s job is to make sure she’s staying on track with her medical appointments. Barraza checks that Trujillo is getting her Medi-Cal benefits, and that she’s taking her prenatal vitamins.
Barraza also wants to see how Trujillo’s 18-month-old daughter Lea is doing.
“Como está, mama? Dame un besito,” Barraza says to the shy little girl.
Barraza takes note of Lea’s language and social skills.
Lea’s mom, Elena, said the program has made a big difference in her life.
“The program has been great,” Trujillo said. “I’ve gotten a lot of support. The classes that they’ve given me have helped a lot with my kids and my health.”
In addition to home visits, the program offers free classes on a variety of topics, including how to prevent childhood obesity.
“More than anything, I’ve learned how cook good food, which has really improved my family’s health,” Trujillo explained. “We used to eat a lot of lard and tortillas. And they told me that those kinds of foods make you fat. So I’ve learned a lot, and we’re trying not to eat like that. We want to eat better, more healthy.”
The program targets women in San Diego County’s poorest neighborhoods, where overall health is bad, and infant mortality is high.
There are more than 100 federally funded Healthy Start projects in the U.S. This is the only one that serves California’s border region.