The Village Every Baby Needs

A healthy start for a baby can depend on much more than what happens in a doctor’s office.

It can depend on whether a mother has transportation to her postpartum appointment. Whether a family can afford diapers. Whether a new father feels comfortable asking for help. And sometimes, whether the organizations serving that family know about one another.

Those connections were at the center of a recent 10:33 Initiative meeting in Pulaski County, Arkansas focused on maternal and infant health and the role communities can play in supporting families before challenges become crises.

“Arkansas mothers and infants experience higher health risks than anywhere else in the United States. Community partnerships can change that,” said Deanna Walderns, who works with the 10:33 Initiative, as the discussion opened with Arkansas’ maternal and infant health challenges.

The panel brought together people from different sectors: Matt Thomas, outreach minister at Central Church of Christ in Little Rock; Donna Ezell, executive director of Caring Hearts Pregnancy Center; Brock Cook with Every Arkansan Dads; and Nikki Nichols, a community health workers leader at Baptist Health.

Their experiences illustrated one of the central ideas behind the 10:33 Initiative: families often face several challenges at once and addressing them requires organizations to work together rather than in isolation.

The 10:33 Initiative is designed around that approach, connecting government agencies, professional service providers, churches and other community partners so that someone seeking help can be connected to a broader network of support.

Nichols said three barriers repeatedly surface among the families her team serves: child care, transportation, and safe, affordable housing.

Those challenges can become especially significant immediately after childbirth, she explained. A newborn may need to see a pediatrician within days of leaving the hospital. A mother who delivered by cesarean section may need to return for follow-up care. But if she has several other children and no transportation, simply getting to those appointments can become a major obstacle.

The same challenge can arise when a family needs formula, groceries, or diapers. “Those are the barriers that we see every day,” she said.

Her team of community health workers stays connected with pregnant mothers and their families through their babies’ second birthdays, providing education and support while also helping families address needs such as food, housing, and transportation.

Nichols described recently transporting a mother, her newborn, and four other children so the mother and baby could make needed appointments.

“Those are things that people don't see or realize,” she said.

Nichols opened up about her own experience as a teen mom, feeling ashamed and not knowing where to turn.

Donna Ezell said Caring Hearts Pregnancy Center often meets mothers and fathers at a moment of immediate need. The organization provides pregnancy testing and ultrasounds, parenting education, and mentoring, all while connecting families to other resources in the community.

For Ezell, the work is deeply personal. "I worked labor and delivery for several years and then I worked another high-risk program at UAMS to help reduce maternal mortality," she explained. "But really the calling to my specific work now and the services that we provide was more from a personal aspect. As a teenager, I had an unplanned pregnancy and, looking back, I did not have the resources I needed nor the information that I needed or the hope that I needed that I could parent. I chose abortion and that took me several years to heal from."

She said she now tries to ensure that her organization is providing all the information a woman needs to make a truly informed decision and all the resources that are available.

"We're getting them connected to all the things they need to have the healthiest pregnancy and the healthiest family possible," said Ezell.

At Central Church of Christ, Matt Thomas has seen how meeting a practical need can open the door to something bigger. The church's kids closet distributes clothing and diapers every week. Thomas said the ministry recently filled about 140 diaper orders representing roughly 90 families.

But Thomas said what he increasingly notices isn't simply the financial need. “I think the thing I'm seeing the most is that parenting is really lonely,” he said.

Parents and grandparents come to pick up diapers or shop for clothing, but while they are there, they meet other families and build relationships with volunteers. Some who initially came for help have found ways to contribute themselves, including donating clothing and helping with English-language classes.

“We're trying to just create that community,” Thomas said.

The discussion also emphasized that supporting healthy families requires intentionally including fathers.

Brock Cook works with Every Arkansan Dads, which offers a 12-week father-specific parenting class while helping dads address other barriers in their lives. Cook said the goal is not simply to keep fathers engaged during the class but to build a lasting community among them.

The program recently graduated its first class of 24 fathers.

For Cook, the work is also personal. He told the audience that he lost parental rights to his now 17-year-old son because of circumstances in his past. Today, he also has an infant son and describes fatherhood as a second chance.

“I get to help dads realize how important they are so that hopefully they don't have to go through that,” Cook said.

He believes communities can begin by changing how they respond when fathers seek assistance.

“We have to normalize it,” Cook said, explaining that while society is accustomed to mothers seeking parenting support, the same is not always true for fathers. He said fathers also need to understand that their role extends beyond financially providing for their children.

“There are people who want to help,” he noted.

Ezell said organizations don't need to try to provide every service themselves. Instead, they can concentrate on what they do well and develop strong relationships with partners specializing in other areas.

She described the ability to refer families to the 10:33 Initiative—and receive referrals in return—as “a godsend.”

Thomas agreed, noting that even professionals devoted to community outreach may not know every resource available in Pulaski County. “We're trying to create a big team here through the HopeHub software,” Thomas said.

HopeHub is a digital platform that allows multiple service providers to work together around a single participant, creating an individualized plan that addresses needs across multiple areas of life. The platform assesses well-being across 13 indicators and allows communities to track progress and outcomes over time.

Rather than expecting one person to remember which food pantry is open on a particular day or which organization can address a specific problem, partners can bring that knowledge together.

“Having a team around every family that we serve is one of the best things we did,” Thomas said.

That is also a central goal of the 10:33 Initiative: instead of requiring people in crisis to navigate disconnected systems on their own, participating organizations can work together around the person seeking help.

As the discussion ended, panelists were asked: What does a healthy start for every baby look like?

Their answers repeatedly came back to the same thing: supported parents. Nichols said a healthy baby needs a healthy caregiver. Cook emphasized parents having people around them who can help them determine what to do next. Ezell described parents who may not have all the answers but know they have resources and people they can turn to.

Thomas widened the lens to the community. “We all know the saying it takes a village,” he said. “So I would say being present and known, maybe even before the needs.”

That may be the larger lesson for communities working to improve maternal and infant health: the resources to help families often already exist. The challenge is making sure families, and the people serving them, are connected to those resources before a small problem becomes a crisis.