Prenatal Care and Home Visiting

KEY COLLABORATORS

Iowa Health and Human Services

Ensuring positive outcomes for children starts before birth, and Iowa has long prioritized the health of children and families through pioneering home-visiting programs. These programs offer crucial support from prenatal stages through early childhood, though they often face fragmentation across providers, funding, and administration, resulting in siloed data. Iowa’s Integrated Data System for Decision-Making (I2D2) was established to integrate these data, helping to better understand and address the needs of Iowa’s families with young children. 

With funding from Iowa’s Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV),  I2D2 has conducted various projects examining prenatal needs, service usage, and family experiences. This includes studies on birth risks, home visiting program completion, and the impact of birthing hospital closures on maternal and child health. I2D2’s findings continue to guide efforts to enhance prenatal care and home visiting programs, with ongoing work to develop data tools that support community leaders and program improvements.

Findings in Action

Setting the stage for positive outcomes for children begin before birth. Iowa has long been committed to the health of children and families and has led the nation in home-visiting programs to support families . Home visiting services support children and families through prenatal, birth, and early childhood, but services are fragmented across different provider types, funding streams, and even administrative authorities. This means the data about families served is also siloed. I2D2 was identified to help integrate these data to better understand the needs of Iowa families with young children and guide program leaders and policy-makers in identifying challenges and creating solutions for prenatal care and home visiting programs.

In 2019, I2D2 began collaborations to integrate home visiting records with other public administrative datasets that informed some of the work of ECI 2019 Statewide Needs Assessment. Subsequently, with funding from Iowa’s Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV), the team has explored a host of projects investigating prenatal needs, care, and service use including:

  • The used indicators from 2010 Title V MIECHV Home Visiting Assessment from Iowa’s Department of Public Health and the 2019 National Center for Children in Poverty Report to helped paint the picture of trends and outcomes for children at the time.
  • In 2021, I2D2 completed a study about birth characteristics and risks, family characteristics in home visiting programs, and program enrollment related to home visiting program completion (Technical Report: Birth Risks and Timing of Enrollment in Home Visiting)
  • In 2022, as part of a follow-up statewide needs assessment I2D2 collected a statewide survey of families to understand more about family knowledge of existing information, experiences with programs such as home visiting, and identified barriers to service that kept families out of programs (Iowa Families with Young Children: 2022 Statewide Family Survey Report.
  • Another body of work involved investigating the impact of birthing hospital closures on maternal and child health. Since 2000, 41 birthing units have closed and Iowa’s Obstetrician Summit expressed great concern of the potential impact. Home visiting leadership was also interested to see how these services might be supportive for families living in closure areas. (see Access to Care, Outcomes, and Birthing Unit Closures). In October 2023, I2D2 presented findings at the Maternal Health Symposium on Prenatal Care, Birth Outcomes, and Hospital Closures in Iowa.

I2D2 continues to expand this work, including partnership with the MIECHV leadership to continue prenatal service use analyses and investigating ways to bring more data tools to community leaders in support of program improvement efforts.

Data Briefs

Rouse, H.L., Lippard, C., Betancur, L., Abraham, T., Bruning, J., Li, D. (2023). Data Brief #12 –Iowa Early Childhood Workforce Study: Compensation is Key for Addressing our Childcare Crisis. Iowa’s Integrated Data System for Decision-Making. Ames, IA.

 

Themes in Iowa’s Child Care Conversation: Strengths & Partnership – Strong Foundations. February 2021. Iowa’s Integrated Data System for Decision Making, Issue Brief #4:2.21.

Iowa’s Child Care Shortage: It’s an Economic Issue. December 2020. Iowa’s Integrated Data System for Decision Making, Issue Brief #2:12.20.

Reports

Rouse, H.L., Dorius, C., Lippard, C., Peterson, C., Choi, Y., Voas, R., Riser, Q*., Bartel, M.*, Ku, S.*, Bruning, J.*, Gress, A.*, Kelley, E.*, Facile, K.*, & Flake, L*. (September, 2019). Early Childhood Iowa Needs Assessment 2019. Early Childhood Iowa’s Integrated Data System, Iowa State University. Prepared for Early Childhood Iowa. Des Moines, IA.

Riser, Q.*, Rouse, H., Bruning, J.*, Gress, A.*, Dorius, C., & Foley, T. (February, 2020). Estimated Cost of the Child Care Shortage in Iowa. I2D2 Policy Brief prepared for Early Childhood Iowa. Des Moines, IA.

Primary Investigators

Shannell Wagler

DOM Lead and Contract Director

Heather Rouse & Cassandra Dorius

ISU Analysis Lead

Community Advisory Group Members
  • Kelly Davydov, DHR/DOM Program Manager and Preschool Development Grant Director

  • Amanda Winslow, DOM ECI Systems Coordinator

  • Ryan Page, DHS Program Manager

  • Mary Breyfogle, DE Early Childhood Education Consultant

  • Rick Roghair, Iowa Association for the Education of Young Children

  • Tom Rendon, Iowa Head Start State Collaboration Office

Datasets
  • Vital Statistics Birth Records (IDPH)

  • Kindergarten and Preschool Enrollment (IDOE)

  • Childcare Subsidy Receipt (IDHS)

  • Home visiting and family support program enrollment (IDPH, DOM, DHR)

  • Head Start Enrollment (Head Start Grantees)

This work has been supported by federal funding from the Administration for Children and Families Preschool Development Grant B-5 to the Iowa Department of Management, and by seed grants from Iowa State University and the College of Human Sciences to faculty investigators Heather Rouse and Cassandra Dorius.