Staff members and volunteers from Community Home Health Services (CHHS) presented 200 diaper bags containing basic supplies for newborn care to the Community Health Network case management staff in a special ceremony on November 23. The bags will benefit the approximately 200 moms who deliver at Community Hospitals East, North and South each year and leave the hospital without essential supplies for their newborns.

“For the second year in a row, Community Home Health Services has had the opportunity to take on an especially meaningful project, to provide an exceptional experience to new mothers who are in need of basic supplies for their newborns, such as bottles, sleepers, pacifiers and blankets,” says Jessie Westlund, CEO of Community Home Health Services.

Volunteers and staff from CHHS organized the collection of supplies that would fill each diaper bag, including some items that were handmade. Two local Walmart stores provided gift cards to apply toward the purchase of supplies, and the Elwood chapter of Beta Sigma Phi also contributed to the program. CHHS also partnered with members of a local Girl Scout troop, who assembled the supplies in each diaper bag.

The Community Health Network Foundation lent support to the project by donating the diaper bags to hold all the supplies CHHS collected for new moms. “The Community Health Network Foundation is honored to be part of a project that makes such a difference in the lives of our patients,” says Anita Harden, interim president and CEO of the Community Health Network Foundation. “We are especially thankful for the efforts of so many others in our organization and in our community who made this happen.”

The diaper bags will be given to mothers who deliver at Community but are not equipped with the proper supplies to care for their newborns after leaving the hospital. The stocked diaper bags contain necessities such as diapers, blankets and bottles to help mothers and babies in need until the state’s WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) program can be initiated. WIC provides food, nutrition education and referrals to health and other social services to low-income pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women, infants and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk