Summary: This interview with Pam Pimentel, RN, the CEO of MOMS Orange County, was recorded during the holiday season, when a mother and the birth of her baby are celebrated, sung about, and revered. Pam has spent her life empowering mothers with knowledge about caring for their new babies and caring for themselves, before and during pregnancy and in the first year after the birth of the baby. Her insights and knowledge will open your heart and your mind to a new way to think about the importance of how much can be accomplished with babies and children in their earliest years. Pam is responsible for the organizational, clinical, operational, strategic planning and fundraising needs of the community based, not-for-profit health care agency MOMS Orange County, which serves 5,000 low-income pregnant and parenting women each year in Orange County, California. Under registered nurse supervision, the staff provides access to prenatal care, health screenings, infant developmental screenings, health education and referral services through monthly home visits and group classes. Mothers and their babies receive one-on-one education and support during pregnancy and through the baby’s first birthday. Through community support and education, MOMS Orange County has been able to produce astonishing, measureable gains in the lives of those whom it has been able to affect. As Pam explains in segment two of this interview, one out of every ten babies born in Orange County ends up in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after birth. That’s 10% of all babies. A staggeringly high number! The average stay in the ICU is ten days. The average cost per day is $12,000. That’s an average of $120,000 to care for a single sick baby in only the first 10 days of life. In stark contrast, just 4% of babies born of the mothers that MOM’s Orange County has worked with end up in the ICU. And it only costs $1800 to educate and work with each mom for the entire year. The minimal financial investment and less measurable investments of time and education, and being a trusted community resource to ask questions and get information, has made an extraordinary statistical difference to Orange County’s overall health costs relative to newborns and babies. Pam and MOMS Orange County have designed a low-cost, high impact alternative to traditional case management and health education for new mothers in need. It’s a stakeholder model in the health sector applicable everywhere. All babies offer us the opportunity for a fresh start and the creation of a whole new world. For Pam Pimentel, teaching women the practical knowledge needed to nurture and raise a child, not just deliver one, is a gift to all of us. Each child whose life she and the MOMS Orange County team touches has a fresh start in a new world, created by a joyous mother who understands the path to healthy growth and development from the very beginning. - Elane V. Scott www.Birth2Work.org
