Chipping away at a crisis
Health plan commits cash to services for expectant moms in Santa Fe and Rio Arriba counties
Astrid Delgadillo arrived in the United States with a baby on the way, two more kids and a husband in tow, and not much else. She and her family left Honduras, walking and taking buses to Mexico, where they waited more than a year before crossing into the U.S. By last year, they were in a shelter in Santa Fe, and Delgadillo was expecting again.
Delgadillo, 25, has always had tough pregnancies. Here in Santa Fe, she no longer had her mother to help her. And for a time, she didn’t have a way to get to her doctor’s appointments.
Then someone recommended Delgadillo get in touch with Las Cumbres Community Services. Its ¡Que Cute! Healthy Baby Program connects pregnant women and teens in Santa Fe and Rio Arriba counties with services to help them have a healthy pregnancy. In Delgadillo’s case, that meant transportation.
“It was very helpful,” Delgadillo said, speaking through an interpreter Tuesday at Las Cumbres’ Santa Fe office, holding her now-6-month-old baby Jankel Giron while her 2-year-old daughter, Valentina Giron, played on the floor nearby.
Now Las Cumbres is getting a $25,000 boost from Presbyterian Health Plan to help the 10-year-old ¡Que Cute! program expand its footprint into northern Rio Arriba County and San Miguel County.
Megan Moore, executive director of Population Health for Presbyterian Health Plan, said the partnership grew naturally after the health plan invited Las Cumbres to refer clients to its Northern Roots food assistance program, which supplies 16 weeks of fresh fruits and vegetables, along with education and other help, to mainly pregnant women and their families in Santa Fe and Española.
“We were both really focused on the maternal health crisis going on in New Mexico, in Northern New Mexico in particular,” Moore said.
Robyn Covelli-Hunt, Las Cumbres’ director of development and communications, pointed to startling statistics that illustrate that crisis: 12% of New Mexico mothers receive late or no prenatal care compared to 7% nationally, and 20 out of every 1,000 babies here are born to teenage mothers, compared to 14 out of every 1,000 nationally.
Northern New Mexico in particular has seen major shifts in its services for pregnant mothers. Alta Vista Regional Hospital in Las Vegas, N.M., closed its labor and delivery unit in 2022. Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center recently outsourced direct employment of its obstetrics providers. While hospital leaders say the move should help with recruitment, others fear it could lead to a decrease in the quality of care.
Covelli-Hunt said ¡Que Cute! Healthy Baby pairs expectant and new mothers with navigators who can help them access all sorts of services, from transportation to food, and also help them connect with other organizations.
Las Cumbres is currently working on outreach at monthly community events in Chama and Tierra Amarilla and will “much more
slowly” move into San Miguel County, she said. The money from Presbyterian will go into the ¡Que Cute! program’s budget, which Covelli-Hunt said could be used to pay for staffing, outreach, materials and transportation. The organization will report back to the health plan the number of women served, prenatal and postpartum visits with clients and other key figures.
Maribel Lemus, the ¡Que Cute! program manager, said the goal is to help women have healthier pregnancies and build self-sufficiency. In the case of someone like Delgadillo, for example, a navigator might help directly with transportation, she said.
“If that means picking them up and taking them, we do that ... as part of a visit. That builds trust, and you talk more in the ride to the doctor,” Lemus said, adding that navigators might also use that ride to give mothers information on how to ride the bus or about car seat laws in the U.S.
Liliana Trejo, one of the program’s navigators, agreed building trust is key to making the program work. She said she mainly works with teen or immigrant mothers.
“The client looks to you as a friend,” she said.
Trejo said she works with clients from whenever they are assigned to her until six weeks after the baby is born. She said she often sees huge changes in the mothers along the way.
Delgadillo is an example. Her husband now has a job. The family has an apartment. Her 3-year-old is in preschool. Las Cumbres is providing home visiting services for the 2-year-old.
The family hopes to stay in Santa Fe, where they like how quiet it is.