Did you know that Iowa established a program that provides assistance for prenatal care and parenting skills for low-income families?

Iowa's Healthy Opportunities for Parents to Experience Success (HOPES) program is designed to provide family support and education services to families.  The program, established by the Department of Public Health, intends to increase the availability of certified nurse midwives, obstetrical/gynecological nurse practitioners, and family nurse practitioners in areas of Iowa where women have historically experienced difficulty in obtaining obstetrical care from physicians.

Upon screening and admission into the program, participants will go through a series of visits and exercises with a family support worker whose ethnic or cultural heritage closely matches their own, to develop skills in promoting optimal child health and development, improve family coping skills and functioning, promote positive parenting and family interaction, and prevent child abuse and neglect.

Iowa Department of Public Health, Bureau of Local Public Health Services, at http://www.idph.state.ia.us/hpcdp/local_public_health_services.asp#HOPES (last visited Jan. 8, 2007); Iowa Legislative Fiscal Bureau, The Healthy Opportunities for Parents to Experience Success (HOPES) Program, (Nov. 12, 1997), at http://www.legis.state.ia.us/lsadocs/IssReview/1997/IR120J.PDF (last visited Jan. 8, 2007).