Five-Year, $10M Wisconsin Initiative Seeks To Reduce Infant Mortality Rates
The Wisconsin Partnership Program recently announced a five-year, $10 million initiative designed to reduce infant mortality in the state, which has the highest black infant mortality rate in the country, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. According to the Journal Sentinel, black infants in Wisconsin are more than three times as likely as white infants to die before age one. Ninety-two percent of black infant deaths in Wisconsin occur in Beloit, Kenosha, Milwaukee and Racine, with Racine and Milwaukee having the highest rates in the state.
One of the initiative's goals is to help coordinate existing infant mortality programs in the four cities and to increase public awareness. Members of the steering committee contend that the initiative must go beyond ensuring that pregnant women are receiving prenatal care. The initiative will examine other possible contributing factors such as racism, segregation, unemployment, inadequate housing, education, stress, teen pregnancy and the "sense of hopelessness pervasive in many African-American neighborhoods," according to the Journal Sentinel.
Lorraine Lathen, co-chair of the steering committee and executive director of the not-for-profit service organization Jump at the Sun Consultants, said the best way to reduce infant mortality is to lower unintended pregnancies. Lathen said that in addition to sex education, teenagers who have role models and obtainable goals are more likely to take action to avoid unplanned pregnancies.
Phil Farrell -- former dean of the University of Wisconsin's School of Medicine and Public Health and professor of pediatrics and population health sciences and co-chair of the steering committee -- said the initiative will last 10 to 15 years. "And it's going to take a lot more than $10 million," he added (Boulton, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2/15).