August 6, 2025

Giving New Mom's What They Need Most - Answers

DES MOINES, IOWA  --  Pam Kracht is a problem solver.  When she has a question, she finds the answer.  When something is broken, she works to fix it.  It makes her a perfect fit for working with families at EveryStep as a Healthy Start case manager. 

“I was immediately attracted to the Healthy Start program.  I like the way it was set up,” Pam says, “I liked the goals which generally are acclimating clients to parenthood, to getting services, and to the country – in many cases ... I really like that we identify the immediate need, meet it and then move on.” 

Pam started her career in social work as a daycare center director out of college.  She then moved into the social services, working in adoption and foster care, before transitioning to early childhood programming.  That lead her to the Healthy Start program. 

Healthy Start serves new mothers through their children’s first birthday.  Case managers, like Pam, visit with you mothers to answer their questions and help them track their child’s development.  Clients earn points by meeting goals set by case managers; points are used to ‘purchase’ baby items from EveryStep’s Stork Nest store. Pam says she loves the program because it gives new moms what they need most – answers.  

“If nothing else, they’ve gotten their tangible issues solved to the point where now they can focus on parenting,” Pam says, “Because until you’ve got that taken care of, it’s really hard to focus on areas where your child may be delayed.” 

Pam speaks from experience.  She remembers well the struggles of first-time motherhood. 

“I was a nanny prior to my first daughter,” Pam says, “and I’ve never been more scared than that first night alone with her.  ‘What do I do?!’  I’d been around children and worked in a daycare and been a nanny where I was solely in charge for hours - but it’s so much different when it’s your child.” 

Pam couldn’t imagine facing those early days of motherhood alone.  But that’s exactly what her clients oftentimes must deal with. 

“So many clients do not have support.  Whether they’ve moved from across the world to someplace else or they have a family that they’re not very close to.” 

That’s where she is glad to step in.  “They don’t have the support so I can just kind of be a grandma that comes in and helps them,” Pam says. 

Pam can’t help but see her own family in the faces of her client-families. 

“You get really close to the families – especially the moms,” Pam says, “I enjoy children, but these moms are roughly the age of my daughter and many of them don’t have family close by or family at all ... Just to be able to help them and see the progress, I just love that.” 

“I still hear from some moms after they’ve left, primarily with questions about services or where to go,” Pam says, “I always tell the moms that my number isn’t going to change even if our case is closed.”