AUGUSTA — The federal government is giving Maine $1 million to support a program that provides home visiting services to pregnant women and parents with young children.

The grant from the U.S. Department of Health of Human Services will fund the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program. It’s part of $386 million in grants being handed out nationwide.

The department says that 115,000 parents and children were served through the program last year. Secretary Sylvia Burwell says in a statement that having nurses, social workers or early childhood educators visit homes during pregnancy and after babies are born makes a “tremendous difference” in families’ lives.