Healthy Start

Healthy Start is a voluntary statewide prevention program that can help you have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy child. Healthy Start offers support and care to pregnant women, their infants and their families. The goal of Healthy Start is to reduce infant mortality, reduce the number of low-birth-weight babies, and improve health and developmental outcomes in children. Healthy Start strives to give every baby a healthy start in life by ensuring that moms receive prenatal care early, babies are born healthy, and infants and toddlers develop and thrive.

Who is eligible:

• Any pregnant woman who lives in Florida
• Any child 0 – 3 years old

How to Enroll

Complete a Healthy Start screening form during your initial prenatal check up and when your baby is born at the hospital. Your answers will let us know if we can help you and then you will let us know if you would like to participate in the program. You can also self-refer!

Healthy Start Care Coordinators make home visits to provide families with the following services:

• Emotional Support and Counseling
• Depression Screenings/Referrals for Mental Health Counseling
• Prenatal and Parenting Education
• Developmental Screenings
• Baby Safety
• Newborn Baby Care
• Breastfeeding Education, Support, and Resources
• Family Planning Counseling and Education
• Community Resource Information
• Smoking Cessation Education/Referrals
• E.A.M. Dad Referrals
• Earned incentives for baby while you participate

Healthy Start also promotes safe sleep practices for infants.

Remember your ABC’s of Safe Sleep:

Alone: Infants should sleep alone with no other items.

Back: Infants should be placed on their back to sleep.

Crib: Infants should sleep in their crib/safe sleeping arrangement.