Judy,

Our county, together with Public Health Nursing, the local hospital and the
insurance company that provides most of the MediCal coverage, has created a
system whereby a health worker stops by the postpartum floor every morning
and gets the names of all the moms that are covered by MediCal.  They are
called the day after discharge and on day 7,14,21,20 and 30.  The program
ends at 2 months of age.  

We ask about their needs - breastfeeding as well as whether they have made
MD appointments, Peds appointments (we sometimes need to call for them as
there can be a language barrier), applied for their Social Security, etc. 
In other words, we meet the needs of the insurance company (registering
their babies) AND the breastfeeding issues can then be addressed as we make
home visits if she asks for help.  It's much easier to ask for help from
someone who has called than to try to find the phone number and get the
time and strength to call!

Jeanette Panchula, RN, IBCLC
Vacaville, CA

PS - our program will run out of funds in March - so we're not doing THAT
much better than you!  However, our connection and daily visits have made
the nurses much more aware of the breastfeeding support that we have, and I
hope this program will have some longer-lasting effects...

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