Commentary: Expanding home visiting services can save more SC babies | Commentary

In South Carolina, the infant mortality rate is the highest since 2012, having risen almost 40% since 2017, and the rate is 2.5 times higher for African American babies. With the fourth-highest rate in the nation, South Carolina can and must do better for its children and their parents.

As a pediatrician in Columbia, I have seen the devastation that losing a baby can have on a family. A solution to this dire problem is expanding voluntary home visiting services in our state.

Home visiting services are voluntary programs for parents, most often mothers of babies and young children. They feature a trained professional working one-on-one with parents to support, mentor, coach and help them give their babies a strong start in life.

Home visiting works. For families who participate in home visiting programs, their children experience lower rates of infant mortality, lower rates of child abuse and neglect, fewer emergency room visits, lower rates of childhood obesity and better school readiness, which are all metrics that we should strive to improve. Home visiting programs also can provide critical medical support for moms in rural communities where access to health care can be limited.

One of the significant components of home visiting is teaching mothers the safest way to put their infants to sleep and helping them feel confident in these practices. My fellow medical practitioners and I have seen too many infants needlessly die because of unsafe sleep practices.

A few years ago a home visitor I know picked up on jaundice in a newborn baby she was visiting and had the mom bring that baby to me for a check-up. The baby turned out to have a critically elevated jaundice that required urgent intervention. If not for that timely home visit, the outcome might have been dire.

Less than 10% of the eligible population in South Carolina is being served through voluntary home visiting programs, primarily due to a lack of funding. Beginning in 2024, South Carolina can expand home visiting programs by investing in a 3-to-1 federal match through Children’s Trust of South Carolina.

With a minimum state investment of $250,000 in Children’s Trust for home visiting, the federal government will award South Carolina three times this amount. This would ensure that hundreds of additional South Carolina families would benefit from home visiting services, giving children the strong start to grow into productive citizens.

The General Assembly established Children’s Trust almost 40 years ago to invest in innovative programs across the state to prevent child abuse and neglect. Home visiting programs are some of the most proven and effective programs at work for children and their families.

As a pediatrician and father, I urge the Legislature to take up this important opportunity to expand voluntary home visiting throughout the state and expand access to necessary services for families and their babies.

Dr. Ramkumar Jayagopalan is a board-certified pediatrician at Carolina Pediatrics in Columbia. He also is an at-large board member for Children’s Trust of South Carolina.