Many years ago, registered nurse Kathleen Moren noticed that breastfeeding mothers in Rhode Island were lacking the support they needed.
Her time working as a nurse in Chicago was markedly different than what she saw available to the health care industry and its patients when she moved to Rhode Island. There was programming in Chicago to ensure mothers received the lactation support in the hospital and beyond, she said.
In Rhode Island, Moren believed that help fell short. So she started Healthy Babies, Happy Moms Inc.
“I modeled my company after a company I worked with in Chicago,” said Moren, whose decadeslong nursing career has included work in neonatal intensive care, home health care and corporate settings. A mother of four sons – three born in Chicago and one born in Rhode Island – she launched Healthy Babies, Happy Moms in East Greenwich in 1999.
The licensed and accredited health-nursing agency provides mothers with in-home lactation consultations, sleep consultations, breast pump rentals and more.
In addition to a lack of breastfeeding support compared with Chicago, Moren found Rhode Island in need of another commonsense improvement that could make life easier for families.
When Moren first started her company, she would need to coordinate blood-draw appointments for patients’ newborns at the hospital where they were born. Hospitals wanted to check babies’ bilirubin levels.
Bilirubin is formed when red blood cells break down and are excreted by the body. But infants can take some time after birth to properly metabolize bilirubin and can develop a condition called jaundice, which needs close monitoring. Some newborns need a treatment where the bilirubin is converted to a different form so the liver and kidneys can more easily process and excrete it. This kind of treatment – phototherapy – involves exposure to a special kind of blue-green light.
The problem, Moren said, is that doing the blood draw at the hospital could result in a baby being readmitted or the discharge being delayed if bilirubin levels were high. Breastfeeding mothers would need to stay at the hospital – and would often have to make babysitting arrangements for other siblings at home – or go home and be separated from their newborns.
‘It’s helpful if they know that what they are going through is expected.’
KATHLEEN MOREN, Healthy Babies, Happy Moms Inc. president
The situation was less than ideal.
But now, partnering with certain health insurers, Healthy Babies, Happy Moms offers bilirubin blood draws, assessments and home visits from registered nurses who can use at-home phototherapy equipment.
“Parents are thrilled,” said Moren, who has recently started using an upgraded, LED phototherapy bed for babies with even quicker treatment times. “It keeps babies out of the hospital.”
Passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 – which allowed for her services to be covered by insurance – and Moren’s completion of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program more than three years ago have been milestones in both her professional development and the development of her company.
Another business boost: virtual appointments. Moren had been trying to get Healthy Babies, Happy Moms insurers to fund telemedicine visits with clients before COVID-19 hit. The pandemic’s arrival made it a reality, she said.
The company now has six nurses and seven administrative staff members. An online ordering system ensures product availability and client convenience, but always with personal service. Moren welcomes pregnant women to come into the office and get acquainted with the Healthy Babies, Happy Moms staff and services before their babies are born and before services and products are needed.
Moren considers this her life’s work, combining roles as a mother and as a health care professional, finding it especially rewarding to help women in challenging situations. She is proud to help mothers with breastfeeding challenges and other postpartum issues.
Women who have had a postpartum hemorrhage or a Caesarean section during delivery – trying to produce milk at the same time their bodies are trying to heal – are generally in a state of distress, Moren said. She works to build their confidence that they will be able to nurse their newborns.
“I tell them that the way they are feeling is normal,” she said. “There is a counseling aspect to this work as well. With our patients, it’s helpful if they know that what they are going through is expected.”
The Healthy Babies, Happy Moms team also helps women who decide to stop breastfeeding.
“I have to say that I am equally proud of being able to help those women,” Moren said. “They shouldn’t be made to feel that they are doing something wrong, or that they are a failure. There is a nonjudgmental space in my company to help them navigate whatever they want to do. Some want to pump, some nurse twice a day … we help all of them.”
