Trying to avert “an American tragedy” [updated]

When it comes to success stories involving tiny babies, this one is huge.

But after years of waging life-and-death battles on behalf of African American mothers and newborns, Los Angeles’ Black Infant Health program is once again fighting for its own survival.

When state funding for the program was eliminated last year, the Board of Supervisors turned to First 5 LA –the child advocacy organization charged with using tobacco tax revenues to better the lives of local children—to keep services going.

First 5, responding to this motion and amendment, came through with $1.16 million. But that funding expires at the end of June.

So now the supervisors are once again asking for help. The board on Tuesday approved a motion by supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Zev Yaroslavsky asking the First 5 Commission to provide the money to keep the program going for another year. Without it, the only source of funds would be about $500,000 in federal Title V funds—enough to allow just one, or at most two, of the current five providers in the county to continue serving clients.

Infant mortality remains disturbingly high among African Americans, with black infants in California more than twice as likely as whites to die in their first year. The program, established by the state in 1989, has proven effective at lowering the incidence of deaths in the first year of life and at raising birth weights to healthier levels.

“The program works,” says Cindy Harding, director of Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health Programs for the county Department of Public Health, noting improvements in birth weights and decreases in preterm births among program participants in L.A. County.

The First 5 Commission, chaired by Supervisor Gloria Molina, who abstained from Tuesday’s vote, also includes members appointed by each supervisorial office and representatives from the county’s departments of mental health, public health and education. The funding for the Black Infant Health program is expected to come before it on May 13.

The program’s “street-based outreach” approach aims to find women in the first trimester of pregnancy and make sure they get to all their prenatal medical appointments. It also offers “social support and empowerment” for groups of new and expectant mothers—providing help with everything from job placement to breast-feeding.

“We are the gate-opener,” says Yodit Abraha, Black Infant Health program manager for the Mission City Community Network, Inc. in Mission Hills, one of the five providers in L.A. County. “We do everything, anything, for the mommy to cater to her to provide that safety net for the baby…We’re saving future generations.”

Abraha says the program aims to be “very African American-specific and culturally sensitive,” reaching out to pregnant women who may be single and alone. She calls the infant mortality rates “an American tragedy” and says she cannot understand why a successful program should be in peril due to lack of funding.

“This is a program that is not a luxurious activity. We’re talking about life and death,” Abraha says. “No baby in America should die.”

To watch a KABC-Channel 7 report on the Mission City program last summer, click here.

Posted 4/29/10

Updated 5/14/10:

The First 5 Commission, after hearing presentations from Supervisors Yaroslavsky and Ridley-Thomas, voted to provide $1.2 million to keep the infant program funded for another year.