Federal officials visited Nationwide Children’s Hospital on Monday morning to tout new money for home visit services for moms and their kids.
The $525 million investment in the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program includes $13.5 million earmarked for Ohio. The federal initiative offers free in-home services like pregnancy and postpartum care, infant feeding and nutrition and more.
The service reaches 26 of the state’s 88 counties through 103 full-time staff.
Ohio’s infant mortality rate has seen positive progress in recent years, but it’s still higher than national averages, disproportionately so among Black babies. In 2024, the state had the tenth highest infant mortality rate nationwide, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
“These are good investments,” U.S. Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) told reporters. “There are a lot of things the government does that are bad investments, this is a really good one.”
After losing two of her siblings to sudden infant death syndrome and suffering a miscarriage, Columbus-based social worker Shemya Wilson was filled with anxiety before her son was born and immediately following his birth. He’s now 3.
“What I had was a nurse who was willing to sit with me in the dark, and just listen to me, and she didn’t require anything of me,” Wilson told reporters. “I wouldn’t be the woman that I am today without my nurse.”
Wilson said the initiative “meets families where they are.”
“You don’t have to be at your home,” she told reporters. “You can meet at McDonald’s, you can meet at the library, you can meet where it’s most suitable to you.”
In 2025, the Ohio legislature voted to increase the funds going to similar maternal home visit services, after first considering some cuts to funding.
Congress will need to reauthorize federal funding for the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program in 2027, Husted said.
