Franciscan Health Bringing Project Swaddle To Jasper And Newton Counties

RENSSELAER, Indiana - Franciscan Health will provide home visits to high-risk prenatal and postpartum mothers living in Jasper and Newton counties, who receive care from Franciscan Health OBGYN providers.

The program, titled Project Swaddle, sends community paramedics to qualifying patients' home for vital checks, emotional support, connections to community resources and education on safe sleep, home safety, car seat safety, breastfeeding and other parenting topics.

"Project Swaddle will provide women facing high-risk pregnancies additional medical monitoring, education, emotional support and connection to local resources so that they experience healthy deliveries," says Tristan Kirby, director, Franciscan Health Prenatal Assistance Program. "Our goal is to see more Jasper and Newton County women having healthy pregnancies and bringing home healthy babies."

Factors that lead to a patient being classified as high-risk can include diabetes, hypertension, maternal age (younger than 17 or older than 35), a pregnancy with multiple babies, previous pre-term labor, a previous pregnancy loss and substance use disorder.

Franciscan Health's paramedicine program launched Project Swaddle in Crawfordsville in 2018. Since then, the personalized relationships created by Project Swaddle have been shown to help participants stay engaged in monitoring their and their baby's health. 

Participants have been more likely than their non-participating counterparts to follow through on medical appointments, maintain a safe home environment for themselves and their babies and to be more confident as parents.

Franciscan Health patients who may qualify are urged to ask their provider for a referral to Project Swaddle. For more information, please call 219-214-4700.