Sometimes, Natanya Taylor wouldn’t know what to do when her son, Zyheim, continued to cry. She’d run through the list in her head.
“Is he hungry? Is he tired? I just didn’t know how to make him stop crying.”
Then she called Diane Frankel, a registered nurse who was paired with Taylor as part of Buncombe County’s Nurse-Family Partnership.
“She told me to turn on a fan, and bam — he went right to sleep,” the 22-year-old mother said.
Taylor was one of 10 mothers who graduated from the public health program on July 10. Through regular in-home meetings, nurses work with first-time, low-income mothers to improve maternal health, promote healthy child development and help mothers continue school or find work.
“She was like an extra mom,” Taylor recalled.
Currently, the local program serves 100 families. The program recently hired an additional nurse that will be able to provide services to an additional 25 families by the end of the month.
Look for the full story in the wellness section of Xpress on July 18
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