About 20 mothers and their children gathered outside Christy Clark's Point Grey constituency office at lunch-time today to protest the scrapping of a program that sends nurses to visit new mothers at home.

The Nurse-Family Partnership, a new program announced this past summer as part of the government's Healthy Start initiative, will replace government-mandated nurse practitioner visits to all new B.C. mothers, in favour of targeting women deemed at-risk.

Government says the program is being cut to help pay for the $23-million Partnership.

Protest co-organizer Kate Milberry says she isn't against the idea of at-risk mothers getting more attention, but that it shouldn't come at the cost of a successful program for all mothers.

"We find it curious that the premier can distinguish between mothers who need help and mothers who don't need help. And we would like to see the government fund all B.C. moms and newborn babies," she told The Tyee outside of Clark's constituency office.

"We're hoping to achieve public awareness and to let Christy Clark know the real importance of this service, these universal nurse visits to new moms and babies, and to personally show her the stories of women who have been positively affected by this program."

Milberry says nurses can identify issues that cut across socio-economic lines, including post-partum depression, jaundice, and when a baby isn't feeding properly, which mothers might not be able to identify.

Lori Torlone, who gave birth to her second child last year, says childbirth is such an emotionally, physically, and mentally draining event for both mother and child, that getting to the doctor's office could be difficult and may seem unnecessary to new parents.

"Sometimes you're not willing to admit that things aren't going as well as they should. I think women have a tendency to want to be superheroes and to want to feel like they've got it all under control," she says.

"So when the nurse comes, she's in your home, she can assess, they have a checklist that they go through to make sure that everything is going well for you, physically, and for the baby as well, and that's really important."

*The New Democratic Party's Mike Farnworth addressed this issue during the Legislature's Oct. 26 Question Period: "Mothers and parents need this service. It provides vital information to mothers and vital information to doctors, and it's a great support to families. If families really do come first with this government, then why is cutting this decades-old program good for families?"

Health Minister Mike De Jong argued government is putting money towards families that need extra services and support.

"There are mothers who have an extensive support network. They have relatives. They have midwives. They have family physicians who are there for them on a regular basis. But there are others who do not, and we are not going to apologize. I am proud of the fact that healthy start is about focusing on those mothers and those families who don't have that support, and we are going to make sure that that support is there for them," he said.

In an emailed statement to The Tyee, the ministry of health said no program funding was being cut to support the Nurse-Family Partnership, rather they were working to streamline services available to mothers across the province. All mothers will still be contacted by a nurse practitioner, but these interviews will happen over the phone, which the ministry says is already regular practice in some provincial health authorities.

"All mothers will be contacted within 48 hours post-discharge, and offered an initial maternal and newborn assessment. Additional supports, including further assessment and intervention, breastfeeding support, screening for postpartum depression, etc, will be offered based on identified needs of the mother or infant. Mothers who need a home visit from a public health nurse will still have access to that service, but changes are taking place to ensure there is a great focus on supporting vulnerable moms," reads the email.

"This program will offer more intensive care and time to low income, young, first time mothers from second trimester through to the baby’s second birthday. There is strong evidence that offering intensive and sustained nurse home visitation to these specific parents and their children, leads to a wide range of positive outcomes, including; improved physical health; healthy social and emotional development; decreased instances of abuse and neglect; increased levels of school readiness; increased employment; and, decreased involvement with criminal activity. When we speak about families first – this is exactly what we are talking about: putting vulnerable moms and their children first - and growing healthy families."

Clark's office was closed today, so protestors wrote down stories of their own positive experiences with nurse practitioners and planned to either tape them to the office window or slip them into the mail slot.

Milberry says she isn't sure what the next step in this fight will be, but vows to keep the pressure on government to keep the service.

"That's why we're alerted the media, because of the media's role in being a watchdog for government and keeping pressure on them to do the right thing is really important," she says.

*Updated at 4:15 pm

Katie Hyslop reports on education and youth issues for The Tyee.