Editorial: Nevada should aid all children

Thursday, Feb. 22, 2001 | 8:54 a.m.

This week Nevadans received some jarring news, to say the least, about prenatal care in this state. A nationwide study found that pregnant Nevadans were less educated and less likely to receive proper prenatal care than the national average. Of particular concern was the finding by the Kids Count project and the nonprofit Child Trends research center that Nevada ranked 48th in one important category, with 7 percent of women receiving late or no prenatal care. Still, if there is a silver lining to this poor rate, it is that the percentage has dropped since 1990, when 8.1 percent didn't receive appropriate prenatal care.

As the Sun's Steve Kanigher reported Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center attributes this slight improvement to the Baby Your Baby program, which has received support from the state, hospitals and other health care providers. It's obvious that more needs to be done to educate parents about the need for proper prenatal care, but even then a change in attitudes will be slow in coming. Attention to this issue doesn't end, either, once the child is born. Whether mothers received adequate prenatal care or not, it is crucial that parents know how to care for their children. That is why the Legislature should put the brakes on Gov. Kenny Guinn's proposal to severely reduce the state's involvement with the Family to Family program, which offers any parent of a newborn information on child safety, nutrition, health care and other issues. T he initiative, the brainchild of then-Gov. Bob Miller, was ambitious but never received the necessary financial support fro! m the Legislature that would allow it to have a real impact.

The Guinn administration notes that, overall, the state budget is tight for the next two years, and that means fewer dollars everywhere, including for the Family to Family program, which offered information to 11,783 families last fiscal year. In light of the lean budget, Guinn wants the program to focus on "at-risk" families. If money is the issue, rather than gutting the state's support for the Family to Family program from $2.8 million to just more than $600,000 a year as Guinn has proposed, the state should require that financially able parents pay a fee to help offset the program's costs. The first few years of a child's life are critical to his or her development. The state of Nevada should set aside enough money -- in what truly is a nominal amount in a $3.74 billion budget -- to help children get the right start in their lives.