Meeting on local, state infant mortality problems looks to solutions

By Janine Anderson

Tuesday, June 26, 2007 2:15 AM CDT

Journal Times

RACINE - Citywide, 12 of every 1,000 babies born don't make it to their first birthday. That rate is twice as high as the infant mortality rate in the state of Wisconsin.

Take a subset of that group - black babies - and the numbers are even worse, with 28 babies per 1,000 dying in their first year. In other words, nearly 3 percent of the black infants born here don't live past their 12th month.

"We're the highest in the state, and possibly in the country," said Rep. Cory Mason, D-Racine, as he addressed the audience at a town hall meeting on infant mortality Monday morning. "We looked to find numbers that are higher, and we can't."

Mason, working with state Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine, successfully lobbied for $250,000 annually for the city to combat infant mortality through intensive programs for at-risk pregnant women.

"As a policy matter, once we know we have a problem, we can continue to have one of the highest rates in the nation or we can do something about it," Mason said. "If the morality of it doesn't get you, I'm hoping at least the financial argument will."

Millions of Medicaid dollars are spent statewide treating low-birth-weight and premature babies. Babies born too soon and too small are significantly more likely to die in infancy than those who are born full term and at a healthy weight. Programs to address some of the underlying issues - like getting early and quality prenatal care - cost much less, Mason said.

Monday's meeting at Gateway Technical College was the second annual town hall meeting held by the state's Healthy Birth Outcomes program.

Over the past year, concerned city residents, public health officials and health care workers have begun to come together monthly to see what can be done about the city's high infant mortality rate.

Through the Racine Infant Mortality Coalition, firefighter-paramedic Nick Hempel started a local Cribs 4 Kids program, which gets portable crib systems to families that need a safe place for their baby to sleep. Unsafe sleep conditions are a major contributing factor in infant deaths.

Holly Davis, executive director of Next Generation Now, is looking to begin a Birthing Project here. The Birthing Project is a nationwide volunteer-based program that pairs pregnant women, often young or low-income mothers, with a guide to help them throughout the pregnancy and after the baby is born. Additionally, a local Fetal and Infant Mortality Review is now up and running. The group will take an in-depth look at the causes of infant mortality in the city, something that has not been done before.

Infant mortality is a complex issue, with cultural, biological and behavioral factors contributing to increased risks for some populations.

The health care industry itself shares some of the blame, according to findings of other FIMR projects, because doctors and nurses do not always listen to women who come in reporting pre-term labor or problems with their infants.

Teresa Johnson is on the local FIMR project. She is also a nurse consultant for Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare-All Saints and an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's College of Nursing.

She said the project will help everyone better understand exactly what is happening here.

"It's not just income (behind the high infant mortality rate)," she said. "There's still a two to three times increase in (black) babies dying when you control for economic status."

She called on the entire community to work to address the problem.

"How we treat women and children during times of vulnerability reflect on us as a city, a community, a state and a nation," she said. "Many of our companion animals are treated with better food, better health care, a safer, warmer and dryer home and more kindness than the infants, children and families we have talked about today."

On The Net:

Wisconsin Healthy Birth Outcomes Web site:

http://www.dhfs.state.wi.us/healthybirths/index.htm

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http://www.journaltimes.com/crisis

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