By Leslie Boney

GREENSBORO (July 24, 2024) – It’s two weeks after the birth of her son, Jacob, and Emily Clemmer is worried.

Jacob hasn’t taken to breastfeeding and she doesn’t know why. She also has a list of other questions about being a new mom that nobody’s been able to answer.

Today she’ll get some of those answers. Before she and her husband, Nathan, left the hospital with Jacob, they made an appointment with a “Family Connects” nurse from the Guilford County Health Department to visit them in their home.

It’s a free service, made possible through Guilford County’s “Ready for School, Ready for Life” (“Ready, Ready”) program, and today’s the day. 

There’s a knock at the door, and nurse Misty Forsberg walks in.

Over the next two hours, nurse Misty and Emily systematically work through a set of questions, Emily’s list and a checklist Misty has.

“She started to bring up school,” says Emily, reflecting on the visit a few weeks later at a coffee shop just down the road from her home.

“(She) asked if we had thought about what we needed to do to get him ready for it. He was a little infant – two weeks old. Why would I be thinking about school? But she laid out all the milestones we should be looking for, and the more we talked, the more I understood it.”

More immediately, the home visit gave Misty and Emily the time to slowly work through the breastfeeding challenge.

Misty realized it could be a sign of a condition called lip tie or tongue tie, and, left untreated, it could cause later challenges in swallowing, speech acquisition and, potentially, sleep apnea. Before Misty left, Emily had an appointment with a lactation consultant.

FAMILY CONNECTS is just one of several new opportunities available to every parent in Guilford County.

Prior to birth, parents learn about an array of educational, medical, social and financial resources available from specialists in the “Community Navigation” program  housed in every OB-GYN office.

Following birth, Healthy Steps child development specialists in every Guilford County pediatrician’s office get to know parents and answer their questions, by phone and in person. If there are intense challenges, nurses with GenerationEd are available for support at home.

“Family engagement is the key,” says Janet Groce-Fields, a Healthy Steps specialist for the Children’s Home Society of NC based at Cone Family Medicine Center.

“I’ve gotta know where you’re coming from. I can tell you what I think, how I see things, places to go, people to see, but it doesn’t do any good if you are not interested. I need to know what is bothering YOU.”

The new approach to early childhood support has been built both in the board room and on the ground, with a clear commitment to centering, and responding to, the voices of families.

KATINA ALLEN, a parent of three boys, experienced the frustration of trying to figure out how to get her boys the help they needed. 

After joining a group called Community Organizers and Family Issues and another called the Guilford Parent Leader Network, she’s now one of four parents on the governing board of Ready, Ready.

“As parents, we need to be able to share what we really need. Don’t give me what you think I want — let me tell you what I want,” she says. “To get it right means…not just getting parents to the table, but also listening to them. Listen. Pay attention.” 

Ready, Ready provides hands-on support from people like Misty and Janet to all Guilford County parents up to age 3. As the effort grows, new services will be available to children up to age 5, and eventually age 8.

And at each stage parents are learning how to get the best for their children. 

“We have a wealth of resources in Guilford County; you’ve got to make sure families know about them,” says Groce-Fields, now entering her third year with Healthy Steps.

“My goal is to help the family develop skills to advocate for themselves, to problem-solve for themselves. It’s all about building capacity, because eventually, you’re going to need to know how to do this without me.”

Emily Clemmer is getting there. She has access to a Healthy Steps specialist through her pediatrician. She’s resolving Jacob’s feeding issues. She’s stitched together a childcare solution. And as she heads back to her job as a customer-service manager, she knows she has resources she can turn to.

She also has advice.

“I’d say to others, take the help this program offers. I say, ‘Give me your advice and I’ll try it.’ If it doesn’t work, I’m the parent. But I can’t make the decision if I don’t have the information.”

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Leslie Boney is a writer based in Raleigh. He has served as director of policy research and strategic planning at the NC Department of Commerce, Vice President for International, Community and Economic Engagement at the UNC System, and Vice Provost for Outreach and Engagement at NC State University.