It's a warm September morning, and Leah O'Shell is kneeling on a blue and yellow quilt spread over the floor of her cozy Santa Fe living room. Propped in her arms is her son, Samuel Montoya Jr., a chubby, dark-haired 4-month-old dressed in a smart green checked shirt and beige corduroy pants. Perched on a nearby couch is visitor Lisa Church, who chats away with O'Shell about the little bundle squirming before them.

 

 

But Church is more than just a friend who's dropped in to catch up over a cup of tea. She's a "home visitor" with First Born, a free program for new parents started several months ago by United Way of Santa Fe County.

 

First Born families are connected with home visitors who help them build their parenting skills and knowledge. Any first-time guardian of a newborn, be it through birth or adoption, is eligible for the program, which runs from pregnancy to a child's third year.

 

"It's really about providing a support person to the family, really kind of a coach that focuses on helping the family in what they want help on," said Katherine Freeman, CEO of United Way of Santa Fe County.

 

O'Shell, 35, first learned about First Born after being approached by the program's manager a few months ago at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center.

 

She was soon meeting with Church once a week for about an hour at a time. The two women review Samuel's developmental progress, look over the educational handouts Church has brought, and, most often, simply talk about how baby and mother are doing.

 

"Now that I'm doing it, a lot of what I've found I get out of it is a support person, someone to talk to," O'Shell said.

 

The structure of a family's home visits depends largely on the style and interests of the parents. A first meeting, in fact, usually just consists of becoming acquainted with the First Born program and looking over a list of subjects on which future sessions can be based. Topics range from nutrition to safety to infant massage.

 

First Born also offers basic information, such as where to find a good pediatrician or how to enroll in a local adult literacy class. Monthly group workshops, based on the questions home visitors are hearing most frequently from parents, are also offered, and subjects have included CPR and adding solid foods to an infant's diet.

 

"I think the point of the program is to support and help any first-time parents," First Born manager Tekla Johnson said. "What we want is for parents to feel a lot of joy and confidence in parenting."

 

O'Shell credits Church with helping her better decipher some of Samuel's cues. She was told, for instance, that a loud cough from the baby probably means he's bored, and not necessarily on the verge of a health disaster.

 

"They're very helpful with safety tips, things like that. I know I'll have to rearrange my entire house once he starts crawling. I know Lisa will help with that," O'Shell said.

 

The First Born program was founded in Silver City about 12 years ago. Over the years, it's expanded to other New Mexico locales including Los Alamos and Rio Arriba counties.

 

United Way of Santa Fe County started its own program last January, joining with Santa Fe County and Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center. A handful of public and private sources are funding the project, which costs United Way about $3,700 per family for one year of service.

 

"It's been fairly well-studied in the Silver City community and has some fairly rigorous outcome-based studies associated with it," Freeman said. "It looks like the First Born program is a very promising best practices in home visitation."

 

More than 65 families are currently participating in the Santa Fe program, and a number of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds are represented, Johnson said.

 

"I don't think that there's a typical family, but I think first-time families have typical concerns," she said.

 

Church, who has a degree in public health, called the program "really parent-focused ... really impactful."

 

"I just feel it's really important for parents to have this kind of support, and First Born really helps parents with what they need," she said.

 

In five years, United Way hopes to have about 300 First Born families, equal to about half the annual first-time births in Santa Fe County, Freeman said.

 

"It's kind of a happy program. It's a fun thing to be doing. Hopefully, this kind of intervention will help with early literacy, and help kids with school, and some issues down the road will be avoided," Freeman said.

 

For more information on United Way of Santa Fe County's First Born program, call Tekla Johnson at 660-7720 or e-mail firstborn@uwsfc.org.

 

"It's free. It's voluntary. I just think it's a great program a lot of people have benefited from," Johnson said.