Donors “Give Back” to Support St. Luke’s Nurse-Family Partnership Program

This year, the St. Luke’s Nurse- Family Partnership (NFP) program reached several milestones in its mission of providing home visitation support to families affected by social and economic inequality. The program is celebrating its 23rd year supporting families in Lehigh and Northampton counties.

“Our specially trained nurses visited over 440 mothers from early in pregnancy through the first two years of the child’s life,” said Tiffany Grabinski, MSN, RN, Director, Maternal Child Programs. “We believe this is a truly wonderful program. The stress of a newborn is significant and unfortunately most of us have no training in how to handle a baby’s arrival and first two years.

The help and support of the program’s nurses make a huge difference both to the mother and newborn child,” noted Peter and Odete Kelly, long-time supporters of the NFP program. In addition, NFP is in its first year of launching the Moving Beyond Depression (MBD) model as an additional resource to support maternal mental health. So far, the MBD program alone saw 70% of the mothers who completed the program no longer meeting the criteria for depression, and 80% of the mothers surveyed reported decreased parenting stress. “Our NFP program is funded to mentor 300 families at any given time,” said Tiffany. “Last year, we saw a 30% increase in referrals, more than 1,000 families in need of our support.”

“At Two Rivers Health & Wellness Foundation, we are proud to support the Nurse-Family Partnership. Through St. Luke’s evidence-based initiative, they are investing in brighter futures for our community’s most vulnerable families. Together, we are ensuring that every child has the opportunity to thrive and every mother feels supported during this critical time of life,” said Daniel McMahon, Vice President.