Mothers who give birth at Woman’s Hospital will soon receive a set of books they can take home to start their newborn right away to a lifetime love of reading.
The Baton Rouge hospital, where thousands of children are born every year, announced Wednesday the launch of this early learning initiative. It’s one of a handful of hospitals that have joined forces with Durham, North Carolina-based Book Harvest to provide newborns and their families with starter home libraries. The prominent nonprofit Baton Rouge Area Foundation is providing support for the initiative.
Book Harvest, which has given children more than 3 million books since it started in 2011, has of late been recruiting hospitals to further its work via a program called “Books from Birth.”
The first hospital to participate in the program was Maynard Children’s Hospital in Greenville, North Carolina starting in October 2024. That hospital has since provided home libraries to more than 4,500 families with newborns. A total of eight hospitals across the country are expected to participate by the end of this year.
Since opening in 1968, Woman’s Hospital has presided over the birth of more than 400,000 babies.
The home libraries consist of 10 books. They are “board books” made of paperboard, books that infants and toddlers can handle without tearing. The kit also comes with a special onesie.
The North Carolina nonprofit points to research on the importance of books at home for future success at schools and the fact that millions of children have almost none they can use to learn to read.
“Having a home library from birth is necessary to children’s literacy development and lifelong success,” according to Book Harvest literature. “Vocabularies flourish. Empathy thrives. Curiosity ignites. Children learn.”
