October 29, 2025 Family Connects NJ Program Celebrates Its 7000th Nurse Home Visit

Family Connects NJ Program Celebrates Its 7000th Nurse Home Visit New federal study affirms that home visits improve child and family well-being TRENTON - New Jersey's Universal Nurse Home Visitation program-Family Connects NJ-which launched in January 2024, has recently conducted its seven thousandth home visit, according to state officials.The voluntary program connects new parents, whether through birth, adoption, resource placement, or kinship placement, with a registered nurse visit within two weeks of an infant's arrival. The program also assists families recovering from the tragedy of stillbirth or neonatal loss.Part of First Lady Tammy Murphy's Nurture NJ Initiative, Family Connects NJ is successfully improving maternal and infant health outcomes in the counties where it's been launched."Family Connects NJ is a powerful tool to meet new moms and babies where they are-in their homes-during the early days of parenthood and infancy," said First Lady Tammy Murphy. "Having a specialized nurse visit the home is a commonsense way to alleviate the burden on new parents, while still ensuring mom and baby are seen by a medical professional and can get connected to programs, resources and services in their community. This is a life-saving program that has already boosted health outcomes for thousands of New Jersey families, and I look forward to seeing visits increase with its continued expansion."Since the program's implementation, approximately 17% of in-home nurse visits have resulted in a referral for a significant infant or maternal health concern that could not wait until the family's regular medical care appointment. Among the top reasons for referrals have been hypertension-related issues as well as other postpartum complications, such as infections in mothers and babies. Nationally, hypertensive pregnancy disorders are responsible for nearly a third of maternal deaths during delivery, and they are the most common underlying cause for pregnancy-related death in the early postpartum period in New Jersey.Additionally, over 44% of the families participating in the Family Connects NJ program received one or more referrals during their integrated home visit for services relating to childcare, postpartum mental health, caregiver needs, referral to a primary medical care provider, or material needs for the family, such as diapers and food."It's gratifying to know that through this innovative and lifesaving program, we have already been able to reach seven thousand families," said DCF Commissioner Christine Norbut Beyer. "Connecting a specialized nurse to parents and caregivers, assessing both the mother's and baby's health in the comfort of their own home, ensures that everyone is stable and doing well, that they're connected to resources in their community, and in cases of a medical emergency, that they are immediately referred to their physician or hospital in order to prevent tragedy."Evidence-based home visiting programs are not completely new to New Jersey. For several years now, the state has offered an array of longer-term home visiting programs aimed at supporting at-risk families with infants and young children, such as Healthy Families, Nurse-Family Partnership, and Parents as Teachers, that have been shown to improve family outcomes.In fact, recently the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released findings associated with the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation study that provide evidence and support for what were once just anecdotal conclusions: "direct interactions between home visitors and families had statistically significant, long-term positive effects on maternal and family wellbeing outcomes by the time children reached kindergarten. The positive outcomes included: improvements in families' economic circumstances, reduced family conflict and violence, better maternal mental and behavioral health, and strengthened parent-child interactions."Family Connects NJ adds to this array of services, providing an option available to all families in New Jersey during the critical immediate postpartum period. Families that need further support can then be referred to a longer-term home visiting program."The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and many other advocates across the medical field have long recommended that we redefine how we administer postpartum care, with various medical touch points for parents and babies during the immediate and vulnerable postpartum period," said Dr. Sanjna Shah, Medical Advisor to the Family Connects NJ statewide initiative. "We know that some parents miss that critical six-week visit with their medical home, which is so very important. According to recent statistics, nearly 57% of new moms missed their three to eight week postpartum visits after delivery. Those numbers were even higher (61%) among younger mothers between the ages of 20 to 24. This is where Family Connects NJ fills that vital service gap and serves as part of the larger continuum of postpartum care, supplementing the care that families receive from their obstetric and pediatric providers."Nurse home visits through Family Connects NJ can last between one-and-a-half to three hours and are customized to meet the needs of the baby, the parents, and any other family members in the household. Nurses conduct health screenings, weigh the baby, and can offer advice on topics such as feeding, sleep training, and caring for a newborn, as well as referrals to community supports through Connecting NJ. Where indicated, nurses can complete one or two shorter follow-up visits to address specific concerns. Researchers found that through the Family Connects NJ model, mothers were 30% less likely to experience possible postpartum depression or anxiety and were more likely to attend their 6-week postpartum health check.After a Family Connects NJ home visit, a program team member contacts the family approximately one month later to make sure the family has successfully connected to resources. During that follow-up contact, the program team member can also receive information about how the visit went. "Early in our conversations with the participants in the Family Connects NJ program, we learned how much parents with newborns appreciated the fact that visits were being conducted by specialized nurses," said Sanford Starr, Assistant Commissioner of the DCF Division of Family and Community Partnerships (DFCP)-the division that oversees the program. "Family Connects NJ visits benefit from a level of trust that is established naturally between nurses and the families they visit, and that trust helps families quickly feel at ease. It's about making parents feel comfortable about opening up and talking frankly about the challenges and successes they've experienced in their birthing journey."Family Connects NJ is currently available in over half the counties across the state, including Bergen, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, and Sussex. The program is scheduled to expand services to Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Monmouth, and Salem Counties in January 2026.One recent service recipient shared about his experience with the program, "As a first-time father, I had so many questions about how best to care for my infant. Our nurse took the time to answer all of my partner's and my questions with patience and clarity. This program is invaluable in giving parents that extra support after coming home from the hospital and easing the concerns that naturally arise in those first weeks."Ranging from a couple hundred to one thousand visits already in certain counties, the Family Connects NJ program has also garnered similar respect and enthusiasm among medical providers."One of our nurse providers recently shared that they were contacted by an obstetrician for assistance because of concern over a newly delivered mom's blood pressure," said Family Connects NJ Program Director Brandie Wooding. "Even with it being the Labor Day weekend, a Family Connects NJ nurse went out and checked on the mom, was able to assess her blood pressure, and communicate back with the obstetrician, and they worked collaboratively to come up with a plan for this patient. This is what sets Family Connects NJ apart and makes it so special. It serves as a vital part of the postpartum care journey, ensuring moms and babies are healthy and safe."To learn more about Family Connects NJ, visit https://www.familyconnectsnj.org/ or to read more testimonials about the program, visit https://www.familyconnectsnj.org/testimonials. Top ^