Supporting the building blocks for a healthy life

A pregnant patient arrives at Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital - St. Joseph Campus in Milwaukee at the Women’s Outpatient Center (WOC) with her three children in tow. Thanks to donor support and coordination by Maternal Health Navigators, she left with much needed food, baby supplies, help to secure safe housing for her family and received a same-day prenatal visit.

The children were supervised in the children’s waiting area during the mother’s prenatal visit. The family went home with clothing from the donation closet and a bag of shelf-stable groceries. Transitional housing was secured by the afternoon and transportation was provided using Lyft contracted services. The patient was also given a 30-day bus pass and connected with community food resources.

For many women in Milwaukee that may be experiencing hardship such as homelessness, unemployment or domestic violence, the WOC serves as a lifeline. The center provides connections for this vulnerable population to healthcare, housing, food resources, transportation and education.

Approximately 700 patients from the WOC deliver at Ascension St. Joseph each year, encompassing about 35% of all babies born annually at the hospital.

Thanks to your generosity to the Foundation, the WOC is in the process of remodeling the children's waiting area and is planning a ribbon cutting soon.

“We are so incredibly grateful for the donors that support the Foundation and help fund all that we can offer to our families to give their babies the best start in life,” said Nicole Lorino, Nurse Manager for the WOC and Family Birth Center

Participants can ‘earn’ points to choose items from the Stork’s Nest, a room stocked with a variety of essential baby items, by attending appointments and participating in educational opportunities. The Stork's Nest is funded through the Foundation, other sponsors and private contributors.

Baby items funded by the Foundation totaled $12,390 last fiscal year. These much-needed items included bath products, boppy pillows, bouncer seats, infant carriers, clothes, toys, books and blankets.

Thanks to your donations, the Foundation also fully supports car seats and portable cribs for classes in the WOC. Last fiscal year, you helped provide 360 car seats and 368 portable cribs to parents who successfully completed training courses on safe sleeping for babies and proper use of car seats, totaling $48,756 of funding.

Thank you for helping make this possible for mothers and their babies and families. By supporting areas like the Women’s Outpatient Center, you are making a difference every day. To make a gift to support the WOC, please click here.