Healthy Start of Osceola County stands ready to help expecting mothers and parents of newborns make sure everything is okay.
Thanks to community partnerships, this non-profit, one of 32 such coalitions in the state, is poised to help even more mothers, fathers and newborns in Osceola County.
It is a lot of work. In 2024, Osceola County saw 5,123 births, up from 1,700 in 1989. Osceola County lost 29 babies.
“All the work we do is to prevent infant mortality,” Healthy Start Executive Director Kerri Stephen said at the organization’s annual awards meeting Tuesday. “I can’t stress enough the lifesaving work our team is doing among the huge number of mothers and families we have to serve.
“I'm proud to say that when I started three years ago, we were a team of five, And last year we have grown to be a team of nine full time and two part time staff. That really does help us drive our work forward. There are areas of focus and that is infant mortality, which all of the work that we are doing, it is to prevent infant mortality, and we are wanting to support as many families as we can to have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby.” To show the local impact of Healthy Start, take a look at the stats: there was only one fetal loss in the last year among its clients, not pre-term births, and just 11% of clients’ children were born underweight.
Program Manager Terrissa Gandy leads a team of five doing over a thousand prenatal screenings per year. Those screenings and that help can change a life as it comes into the world. Mom Karina Ramirez and her husband Joel worked with Terrissa at the time their son Jalen was born.
“Terrissa knew I had just moved to Florida, and that any extra support or resources would be so helpful as I began my new chapter,” Ramirez said Tuesday. “That's when I was introduced to Teresa, and from my very first visit, I felt very comfortable. Terrissa brought a sense of calm to a very first time mom to be, sharing resources that brought me such peace of mind. After Jalen was born, she continued to check in on me and supported me through the most important role I've ever had— motherhood. She made me feel like I had a friend to lean on when I didn't have family nearby. “Healthy Start made my transition into motherhood and life in Florida so much easier and full of joy from the bottom of my heart and has been such a blessing to me.”
Healthy Start Osceola held a “community baby shower” for new moms in May, and the turnout was so great some were turned away. Stephen said it will become a community event in 2026 to provide resources for all parents who need them.
“I saw one mom in tears for being able to get access to the items needed when a baby comes,” Stephen said, noting car seats, diapers and the like. “It’s expensive to have a baby these days.”
And the support isn’t just for the mothers; Healthy Start works to support fathers as well. The Team DAD program started in 2024 and will expand to an Ambassador program in 2026. At the Feb. 2 Osceola Magic game, Healthy Start Osceola will be honored and will name its Father of the Year.
Among the non-profits other planned expansions in 2026 include a review program to study fetal and infant death cases, as well as more breastfeeding and postpartum support and bereavement support to parents who lose young children. The Healthy Start “Mall” with parenting supplies, support by the Second Chance Thrift Shop of St. Cloud, also looks to expand.
It’s all in the name of giving families the ideal start or expansion to their families—a healthy baby, an at-ease mom, and a strong father.
As Stephen said, “Outcomes are better when families can get our services.”
For more information, go to www.healthystartosceola.org.
