Two Feet Newsletter

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Our Diocesan Social Action Office's Two Feet Newsletter is distributed monthly via email.
Our monthly publication contains news, information, and calls to action.  

 

By Barb Arland-Fye

Melody Hobert-Mellecker is a University of Iowa nurse and member of St. Joseph Parish in Hills who works in newborn screening. Her work includes travels to Alaska and several other states. (Contributed photo)Saving the lives of newborn babies and contributing to their positive health outcomes motivates and inspires Melody Hobert-Mellecker, a longtime nurse at the University of Iowa. After working for 18 years as a psychiatric nurse and then in administration, Melody needed a change to re-energize her career. She found it 12 years ago in newborn screening. 

“The most incredibly rewarding 12 years of a nearly four-decade career in nursing,” declares Melody, a wife, mother, grandmother and member of St. Joseph Parish in Hills.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “has called newborn screening the ‘most successful public health initiative’ of the last century,” Melody says. Of the nearly 4 million babies born annually, “greater than 98% receive newborn screening and over 12,000 babies a year are identified with a serious health condition that, if left untreated, could result in permanent disability or even death.”