Mothers learn parenting and employment skills and receive on-site health care. Participating mothers have reduced alcohol and drug use, experienced deliveries with fewer complications, decreased hospital days at delivery, decreased arrests and increased employment. Participating mothers report decreased depression and decreased parenting stress. For their infants, child abuse and neglect have decreased, and growth and development have improved.
Older children show increased ability to resist using drugs or alcohol.
Curtis Lowery, M.D., UAMS Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, served as principal investigator with Cindy Crone, R.N., A.P.N., as program director. Other major funding sources include the Arkansas Department of Health, the City of Little Rock, the Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education of the Arkansas Department of Human Services, and the Junior League of Little Rock. Pre-term birth is associated with low birth weight and neonatal intensive care. In FY 1999, the state spent only 8 percent of alcohol and drug treatment dollars on women with their children. Less than 2 percent received care.