When Flint resident Angela Sintery found out she was pregnant for the second time — 19 years after her first child was born — she was concerned.
“I didn't have anything, I had to start over from scratch,” Sintery said. “Things are a lot more expensive than it was 20 years ago.”
Soon, however, friends told her about Rx Kids, which provides unconditional cash to new and expecting mothers. Sintery ended up in the program’s first cohort.
“So I’m like, ‘Oh I can make sure that my baby has everything,’ and that was a wonderful feeling,” Sintery said. “I was able to make sure that I had enough diapers, formula, clothes, I was able to buy her crib, bassinet, her car seat — and I got the best car seat, because I had the money for it.”
A new study, published in The Lancet Public Health, found that Rx Kid grants substantively reduced pre-term births and low birth weights, and prevented neonatal intensive care unit admissions.
Rx Kids was started in Flint by Dr. Mona Hanna in 2024, and has since expanded to over 40 communities across the state, with 20 additional locations slated to be added this summer. It aims to address poverty as a root cause of health disparities.
Those approved receive $1,500 during pregnancy and $500 each month for the first six months to a year of their baby's life.
During and after pregnancy, income often drops and expenses surge. These factors can compound and create stress, housing instability, and food insecurity — known risk factors for adverse birth outcomes. All of this is happening at a vital time for early neurological development, which can be impacted by oxidative stress.
Mothers and babies in cities like Flint, where the poverty rate is nearly three times the national average, are especially susceptible.
Dr. Sumit Agarwal is a professor of internal medicine and health management and policy at the University of Michigan. He's the lead author of the study, and said cash support that improves health at the beginning of life has broader implications.
“Investing in our children can have these sort of immediate effects on things like birth outcomes, but then, by affecting things like pre-term birth rates and low birth weight, I mean — these are monumentally important outcomes that affect the lifelong trajectories of these children,” Agarwal said.
The study found that cash transfers increased access to prenatal care and reduced smoking in the third trimester. Both are mechanisms the researchers believe are behind these improved birth outcomes.
“The thought here is that the cash is reducing financial stress, which is a known reason that people use cigarettes in the first place,” Agarwal said. “What moms tell us is that this cash, this $1,500 during pregnancy, takes a weight off of their shoulders.”
Another study by the same group found that Flint mothers who receive Rx Kids benefits initiate prenatal care earlier in the first trimester, attend more prenatal care visits, and that fewer of them go without prenatal care. This care can help catch potential complications early and allow for more successful treatment.
Agarwal said the positive health impacts are proof that mothers won't waste "no strings attached" cash support, instead using the funds for things that improve well-being.
“These results show that we can really trust families and moms to meet their needs by giving them unconditional cash,” Agarwal said. “There's a lot of concern that unconditional cash will be used for nefarious reasons, and I think we have results showing that this money is spent by and large on the things that we would expect — on diapers, on getting to prenatal care, on food, on really meeting basic necessities.”
Rx Kids receives funding from donors like the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and from public funds.
Sintery said the program’s benefits far outweigh the cost.
“Some of these mothers are very young,” Sintery said. “Worrying about money is stressful, and if we can give them a little bit of money just to take that stress off, so they can enjoy being a mom, enjoy spending time with their child, it’s worth it.”
