Postpartum Newborn Home Visits
The Postpartum Newborn Home Visit (PPNBHV) is a service for new moms and their babies. Health Department nurses provide the visit to eligible families. The visit is covered by some Medicaid insurance plans. Families without insurance, who meet certain criteria, are also eligible for a visit. Ask your doctor to make a referral or write an order for a visit.
In the first few days after you and your baby leave the hospital, many changes take place. During the postpartum newborn home visit the nurse will come to your home to make sure you and your baby are doing well.
Someone from your local health department will contact you to schedule a time for the nurse to visit with you in your home. The nurse will usually spend 1-2 hours with you and your baby.
What will the Nurse Do?
- Ask you about how you and your baby are doing
- Weigh your baby
- Do a physical exam on your baby
- Check your blood pressure
- Do a partial physical exam on you, if needed
- Help you with getting health care provider's appointments for you and your baby
- Offer you a barrier method of birth control (condoms)
- Refer you to other community resources as needed (Things like WIC, BabyNet, local parenting groups, and others)
To help you care for your baby, the nurse will talk to you about:
- Well Baby Care
- Immunizations for your baby
- Ways to keep your baby safe at home, while sleeping, in the car, and at other places
- Ways to keep your baby healthy
- Taking care of your baby's skin, mouth, umbilical cord, circumcision.
- How your baby's brain and body develop.
- Feeding your baby
- Signs and symptoms of illness
To help you care for yourself, the nurse will talk to you about:
- Breast care
- Signs and symptoms of illness
- Postpartum hygiene
- Postpartum activity
- Sleep needs
- Nutritional needs
- Birth control methods
- Prevention of sexually transmitted infections
For more information, contact your local health department or call the phone number for the county where you live on this brochure:
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Pre-discharge Home Visits
The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Pre-discharge Home Visit (NICU Pre-discharge Home Visits) is a service provided to families of eligible infants who are ready to go home from the hospital after a stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. These visits are provided by a public health nurse prior to hospital discharge when ordered by the baby's doctor.
For more information, contact your local health department or call the phone number for the county where you live on this brochure:
Cost of PPNBHVs and NICU Pre-discharge Home Visits: Families are not charged for PPNBHVs or NICU Pre-discharge Home Visits. Medicaid is billed for eligible families. Funding from the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant helps support home visits to families of newborns weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces at birth, infants born at less than or equal to 37 weeks gestation, and to mothers who are 17 years old or younger at the time of delivery.