What is Healthy Start?
Healthy Start is a great way to have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby! With help from the Florida Department of Health and generous donors, the Healthy Start Coalition of Sarasota County provides services to help pregnant women have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby.
How do you qualify?
Healthy Start begins with a questionnaire that every pregnant woman in Florida is offered at her first prenatal visit. Answers on the survey are private. Women are referred to the Healthy Start Program if there are identified risks that may affect the mother’s of the baby’s health. To learn more about the Healthy Start Prenatal Risk Screen, Click here.
If a woman qualifies for Healthy Start, one of our caring and expert Care Coordinators will contact her. They will provide education and support, and arrange other services which may be needed.
A second Healthy Start survey for infants is offered when the baby is born. We want to make sure the baby gets the best start in the first year of life. If there are problems when the baby is born, Healthy Start services will be available if needed. To learn more about the Healthy Start Infant Risk Screen, Click here.
Free Healthy Start services include:
- Phone calls or visits with a Care Coordinator, who is a trained nurse or social service worker
- Information about local resources
- Free classes in baby care, breastfeeding, and childbirth education
- Help to stop smoking
- Help to have a healthy pregnancy weight
- Help with high stress, difficult problems or post-partum depression
- Help with breastfeeding after the baby is born
- Check-ups of the baby’s health and development
- Free parenting classes
- Grief counseling
- Help with low-cost car seats
*Many services are available in Spanish.
Contact the Healthy Start Program:
- Call: (941) 861-2905
- Visit our office in the Sarasota County Health Department:
2200 Ringling Blvd. Sarasota, FL.
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