Joining Delaware and Tennessee, California has become the third state to provide free diapers to newborns delivered at hospitals. The Golden State is the first to offer this program to all newborns.
Through an effort called the Golden State Start, California will purchase diapers and distribute them to participating hospitals statewide. California’s program will allocate 400 diapers per newborn, which is about one month’s supply, at the time of discharge.
In the first year of the program, California and Baby2Baby — a national nonprofit that provides diapers and other items to children in need — “will prioritize hospitals that serve large numbers of Medi-Cal patients so that low-income families benefit early from the program, with plans to scale across additional hospitals and birthing centers over time,” according to a May 8 news release.
Delaware’s and Tennessee’s free diaper programs focus on families enrolled in Medicaid, according to The Guardian. At Tennessee pharmacies, these families can receive 100 diapers per month for children younger than 2 years old. In Delaware, people can acquire up to 80 diapers and one pack of baby wipes per week in the first 12 weeks of life.
“The goal of the program is to ease financial strain for families, reduce difficult trade-offs between diapers and other essentials and support infant health by helping parents maintain an adequate supply of clean diapers,” the release said
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