Maternal Child Health – MCHC Community Health Services
Give your baby the chance to be “Healthy from the Start!”
Maternal Child Health programs at Mariposa Community Health Center offers an array of services to pregnant women and families with babies less than two years old living in Santa Cruz County. Families are provided with support, education, and connections to community resources by a Community Health Worker through home visitation and group education. We understand that pregnancy and the post-partum period can be an exciting, but stressful time. As part of our services we promote health, home safety, car seat education, breastfeeding, and much more. Our Community Health Workers are trained to deliver sensitive, relationship based, quality services to ease that stress so women can focus on keeping their family strong.
Recently, the Maternal Child Health team received training from Project Concern International’s California Border Healthy Start Program on a Life Skills Curriculum. Women participating in our Maternal Child Health programs will have the opportunity to develop communication, computer, and financial literacy skills through this curriculum in efforts to address social determinants of health affecting their overall well-being. There is a mental health component to the curriculum called HEAL (Health Education Action for Living). Through HEAL we hope to increase a woman’s ability to self-monitor her mental health while promoting self-care behaviors. This is a seven class series that explores depression, being a woman, and domestic violence. HEAL is based on our current class, and book “¿Es Dificil Ser Mujer?”/”Is it Difficult Being a Women?”
We look forward to implementing the curriculum to reinforce the education and support provided through home visitation. We want to thank our community partners for supporting our work towards promoting women’s health, strengthening family resilience, and achieving collective impact.
For more information or referrals please contact Yara Castro, Maternal Child Health Manager, at (520) 375-6050.
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