DENVER -- The last thing new parents want to do is head back to the hospital in the first days of their baby's life. One local health care provider is helping babies stay healthy by making home visits in those critical first days.

A visiting nurse program has been especially helpful to Stephanie Prejean.

Her daughter Reagan came about three weeks early, so the infant's getting a little extra at-home attention for jaundice, which is when blood cells in her body break down.

"The problem is the liver cleans it out of our system. For babies that are early, like Reagan is, it doesn't work well until about four or five days of life," said visiting nurse Debbie Pierce.

Pierce is part of Kaiser's visiting nurses program, which helps keep newborns from going back to the hospital. It's also a big relief for parents.

"I couldn't imagine having to go to the doctor over and over again, or heaven forbid, having to go back to the hospital. I mean, that would just be terrible," said Prejean.

Checking on newborn jaundice isn't the only thing Pierce provides.

"She gave me some good advice about how to get her weight up and why we need to do what we have to do," Prejean said.

Prejean's husband, Gavin Prejean, is also grateful. He has his hands full with Reagan's sisters, 3-year-old Genevieve and 18-month-old Taylor.

"They don't have to make trips back and forth to the hospital," said Pierce, who has been to the Prejeans' home twice.

"It's very nice. It's a very convenient thing to offer, especially for new parents," Stephanie Prejean said.

A recent study shows only one in 1,000 babies in Kaiser's program are ever re-admitted to the hospital. That's compared to about 1 in 100 infants in California, where they don't have the program.