Empowering moms – and dads – in the black infant mortality crisis
This project received support from the Center for Health Journalism's California Fellowship and its Fund for Journalism on Child Well-being.
Other stories in the series include:
Black babies die at twice the rate of white babies. My family is part of this statistic
America's black babies are paying for society's ills. What will we do to fix it?
Saving black babies by saving a whole neighborhood
What's behind the high black infant mortality rates? Racism, not race
Why are black babies twice as likely to die as white babies in the US?
Moving from talk to action on black infant mortality plan
After Stacy Scott gave a presentation about safe sleep during a church service at Family Baptist Church in Toledo, this dad approached her for more information. Priska Neely/KPCC
Black babies in the United States are twice as likely to die before their first birthday as white babies. Across the country, researchers, health professionals and community organizers are trying, in ways big and small, to change that.
Ohio has some of the highest infant mortality rates in the country, and in Toledo, black infants are three times as likely to die. Community organizations are focusing on tangible things that black moms and dads can to help.
While most of the black babies who die are born premature, there are also higher rates for sleep-related deaths as babies grow.
"We always worked with moms and babes," said Stacy Scott, founder of the Global Infant Safe Sleep Center. "But I thought it would be great to be able to bring the dad into the conversation."
Through a partnership with the black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi, thousands of men across the country are getting training to be ambassadors.
[This story was originally published by KPCC.]