The Kenosha County Division of Health has announced events and activities to mark September as Infant Mortality Awareness month.
From a media release issued Tuesday:
The death of a baby before his or her first birthday is called infant mortality. Most newborns grow and thrive. However, for every 1,000 babies born, 6 die during their first year in the United States and 5.7 in Wisconsin. This figure, the number of deaths for every 1,000 births is known as the infant mortality (IM) rate. The Kenosha Lifecourse Initiative for Healthy Families (LIHF), is a collaborative of more than 20 agencies in the community that has been meeting since 2010 to increase awareness, improve birth outcomes and help families have healthy babies. Infant mortality occurs among African American families in Kenosha nearly three times the rate of white families. The leading causes of infant mortality is pre-term birth and low birth weight. Many other contributing factors of IM include medical, health or social economic reasons, like diet and nutrition, poor neonatal care, tobacco use, stress, poverty and/or unsafe sleep conditions. DID YOU KNOW? • A healthy pregnancy and healthy baby begins long before a family is expecting! • When dads are involved, moms and babies are healthier! • Safe sleep happens when a baby is placed on his/her back in a crib! Kenosha LIHF plans special activities each year in September to promote Infant Mortality Awareness, including an annual Diaper Drive and community resource campaign to offset diaper expenses for families. National Diaper Need Awareness Week is September 26-October 2 and in honor the Kenosha LIHF is having a Diaper Drive during the month of September 2016! What Is Diaper Need? The lack of a sufficient supply of diapers to keep an infant or toddler clean, dry and healthy. Diaper Need Awareness Week is an initiative of the National Diaper Bank Network (NDBN) created to mobilize efforts to help make a difference in the lives of the nearly 5.3 million babies in the U.S. aged 3 or younger who live in poor or low-income families. Acting together — individuals, diaper banks, faith-based institutions, service providers, businesses, organizations and elected officials — we can get diapers to all babies in need. Donate diapers at the Job Center located at 8600 Sheridan Road: Parent Services Network (PSN) Resource Center, or the Health Department, 2nd Floor. Please call Pamela Smith, 262-605-6781 if you would like to make a financial donation, or if you have questions.
2016 Infant Mortality Awareness events to address co-parenting, empowering girls and infant health and safety:
- Sept. 20 – Co-Parenting: What’s on Your Mind? (Job Center, North 3 Conference Room)
- Sept. 21 – Empowering Girls Summit (Boys and Girls Club)
- Sept. 22 – Infant Health and Safety Fair & Diaper Distribution (Job Center, Commons).
Registration required for diapers. Register for diapers at: KAFASI, PSN, Outreach Center, WIC or Women and Children’s Horizon.
After Sept. 22, extra diapers will supplied to WIC, PSN and the Outreach Center for families involved with their agency.
For more information or, please call the Kenosha County Division of Health at (262) 605-6700, (800) 472-8008, or visit www.kenoshacounty.org.”
