Parenting effectively despite : the Maternal Early Childhood Sustained Home-visiting program

Nurse led home visiting programs as an intervention to invest in children's health and wellbeing is considered a useful and effective way to deliver a health and parenting service (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2014). The Maternal Early Childhood Sustained Home-visiting (MECSH) intervention is an Australian program that evolved from a research trial conducted in a disadvantaged community In south western Sydney, NSW (Kemp et al. 2008). The MECSH trial found that new mothers had Improved confidence in parenting and Improved self-reported health; children were breastfed for longer and were living in a more developmentally nurturing environment (Kemp et al. 2011). MECSH Is embedded into the local universal child and family service system. The components of the program are delivered through at least 25 home visits by the same nurse where the relationship is ideally established during pregnancy and sustained until the child reaches two years of age. Families also participate In group activities and are linked Into community services and supports.