The David and Lucile Packard Foundation supports healthy families through grants and mission investments in organizations like Nest Health, which brings contraceptive care, prenatal care, and family-centered primary care directly to children and families through their home-visiting program.
In rural Arizona, 29-year-old mother Shana had just had her third baby.
Three months postpartum, she wanted to give her newborn a strong, healthy start. But the reality of caring for three children and navigating food insecurity made it difficult to maintain consistent health care for her family – especially in a medical desert.
That’s when Nest Health reached out to Shana with a solution. She was able to arrange for a Nest Health nurse practitioner and family advocate to visit her at home to check in on the newborn.
In some ways, it was a typical check-up, ensuring the baby was healthy and on schedule with care. But being at Shana’s home meant the nurse could also check on Shana and her other children, identifying a hearing issue in her 5-year-old that had not been screened before, flagging new asthma concerns, and completing Shana’s postpartum screening – all in the same visit.
This comprehensive approach was by design. Shana and her family live far from the nearest doctor’s office and didn’t have a primary care provider, making it difficult to keep up with health care, so Nest brought the care to them.
For Dr. Rebekah Gee, CEO and Founder of Nest Health, this approach is how more families can and should get the care they need. Healthcare visits often require time off work, childcare, and transportation to visits – all of which can make accessing care difficult for families.
Nest Health offers primary care, pediatrics, mental health support, urgent care, and contraception. Their appointments work around families’ schedules – available during the day, evenings and weekends, at home or online, and can treat everyone living in the same home: moms, dads, babies, children, and teens.
For Dr. Gee, the home visit provides more than just more accessible medical care.
"There is trust that is built in a home because we are the guest. We are in their environment, versus having people come to you and being in a sterile white coat environment."
Nest prioritizes families covered by Medicaid, because they often face greater barriers to consistent, comprehensive care.
This approach is informed by Dr. Gee’s deep experience as Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health, where she led Medicaid expansion, insuring more than 500,000 previously uninsured residents.
“We really have systems failure in this country,” said Dr. Gee. “We have a worsening maternal and child health crisis that is deeply embedded in our nation’s history of racism and in societal inequities, and those impact Medicaid more than other payers.”
Nest prioritizes families with Medicaid, because they are the least likely to have access to consistent well-rounded care.
This approach is informed by Dr. Gee’s deep experience as Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health, where she led Medicaid expansion, insuring more than 500,000 previously uninsured residents.
“We really have systems failure in this country,” said Dr. Gee. “We have a worsening maternal and child health crisis that is deeply embedded in our nation’s history of racism and in societal inequities, and those impact Medicaid more than other payers.”
At-Home Health Care Works
Home-based care is a proven way to improve maternal and child health. One trial of postpartum nurse home visiting found 33% lower child emergency medical care use and 39% fewer child maltreatment investigations through age 5. Every other high-income country guarantees at least one nurse or midwife home visit within one week of birth. The U.S. also has the highest maternal mortality rate of its peers.
Founded in 2021, Nest Health now serves more than 45,000 patients across Arizona and Louisiana. They are seeking additional funding to expand to more states and provide more health care to the families that need it.
The Packard Foundation supported Nest Health with a $350,000 grant in 2025 to pilot a first-of-its-kind at-home prenatal program, Nest Origin, and to expand their contraceptive care. The grant also supports Nest’s core model in providing care to additional family members in the home during visits, beyond the mother and baby. This approach reflects the reality that families often have complex and evolving health needs. Some families may need support for a healthy pregnancy and birth, others may need contraceptive care, and some may need both at the same time or at different points in their lives. Comprehensive, family-centered care helps meet those needs in one trusted setting, supporting healthy pregnancies and births while also helping people plan if, when, and how to grow their families.
“If we can have planned pregnancy where the mother is ready and safe when she gets pregnant, it just changes the whole course of wellbeing for the family."
The Packard Foundation also made a mission investment of $3 million in 2024 into Amboy Street Ventures, a venture capital fund that invested in Nest alongside other early-stage reproductive and sexual health technologies and innovations. Amboy identifies and supports solutions in areas such as contraception, maternal health, and sexual health — sectors that have historically been under-resourced despite significant unmet need. Amboy invested in Nest because its in-home care model improves access and outcomes for families with Medicaid, reduces avoidable costs for health plans, and helps Nest secure strong contracts based on those savings.
The Packard Foundation supports partners working to create a more connected, more equitable approach to family health — one that integrates maternal care, child care, reproductive health, and financial support and reduces racial disparities in maternal and child health. This vision means that families are being met with care where they are, which is exactly what Dr. Gee and Nest Health are putting into practice, one home visit at a time.
*The name of the mother has been changed to protect her identity.
- Learn more about how the Packard Foundation supports innovations to expand access to reproductive health.
- Learn more about how the Packard Foundation supports partners working to ensure that the health care, child care, and financial supports systems better serve moms, expectant parents, and families with young children.
- Learn more about how the Packard Foundation’s mission investments support organizations that are driving social and environmental change.
