Every mother deserves support, and every baby deserves a healthy start

Every mother deserves support, and every baby deserves a healthy start | Guest column

MEREDITH FULCHER AND MONICA SCHMUDE Apr 28, 2026

She worked so hard to love her baby.

In those early months, the new mother struggled deeply with bonding. Undiagnosed mental health needs and postpartum depression created a fog she couldn’t escape.

Still, she showed up. With the encouragement of her Healthy Families family support specialist, her counselor and her own mother, she finally felt safe enough to seek a full evaluation and begin a new medication.

And then something remarkable happened.

She began to feel like herself again.

She began to enjoy mothering.

She began to smile — and her baby smiled back.

This is the quiet, transformative power of maternal support. It doesn’t always look like a dramatic medical intervention. Often, it looks like a coach sitting with a mother week after week, helping her make sense of the hard parts, reminding her she is not alone, and guiding her toward the resources that allow her to thrive.

Across the commonwealth, too many mothers still face preventable risks during and after pregnancy. According to the Virginia Department of Health, pregnancy-associated deaths dropped from 67 in 2022 to 45 in 2023 — progress worth recognizing. Still, about 39% of pregnancy-associated deaths occur between 43 days and one year postpartum. Black women continue to die at nearly twice the rate of white women, with significantly higher rates of cardiac-related deaths.

Healthy pregnancies reduce low birth weight, support brain development and lower the risks of behavioral challenges later in childhood. Yet, the 2025 March of Dimes Report Card gives Virginia a C‑ for preterm birth, with 9,467 babies born preterm in 2024, placing the state 24th out of 52 nationally. These statistics reflect real families facing long NICU stays, high medical costs and years of developmental concerns.

At the same time, access to birthing care is tightening. As of August 2024, Virginia has 49 recognized birthing hospitals, down from 68 in 2012, a 25% decrease.

This is where community-based, relationship-centered programs become essential.

Healthy Families, operated in Central Virginia by HumanKind, is built on a simple belief: every parent wants the best for their child. Through the support of skilled, compassionate family support specialists, parents receive the coaching, stability and encouragement they need to build strong families and nurture healthy development.

Our home visitors meet parents where they are — literally in their homes, but also emotionally, culturally and without judgment. Working with mothers prenatally up until their child is age 5, Healthy Families helps parents learn how to read their baby’s cues, practice effective parenting skills, build secure, loving relationships and strengthen their own support networks.

Healthy Families is evidence-based, nationally accredited and rigorously studied.

In calendar year 2025, 100% of Healthy Families parents in central Virginia completed 80% of their prenatal visits, and 100% of parents were screened for depression and accepted referrals to resources. And 87% of prenatally enrolled mothers completed a postpartum visit within 12 weeks of the child’s birth. Strong connections with medical providers and collaborative community relationships strengthen Healthy Families’ efforts in the service area. In order to serve moms and babies, nonprofits like HumanKind need corporate and community partnerships.

In 2025, the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation, which seeks to improve the health of all Virginians, invested $1 million in Virginia nonprofits dedicated to improving maternal health. HumanKind received a $50,000 grant to support Healthy Families in Lynchburg. By partnering with community-based organizations like these, Anthem is helping to close health gaps, promote whole-person care, and build healthier futures for women and their children.

If we want healthier mothers and children in Virginia, we must continue to increase our commitment to early, personal, relationship-centered support. Home-visiting programs like Healthy Families are effective because they meet parents at their kitchen tables, in moments of vulnerability and hope, and walk with them through the first years of their child’s life.