Jada Shirriel, Chief Executive Officer of Healthy Start, at her office in Pittsburgh. (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)
Black women have almost five times the rate as White women for infant mortality in Allegheny County
by Rob Taylor Jr.
Courier Staff Writer
In 2018, the infant mortality rates for Black women in the U.S. was a frightening 10.8 per 1,000 live births, more than double the rate for White women (4.6).
Plain and simple, that’s unacceptable, according to those who study and advocate for improved maternal health for African American women, like Jada Shirriel, president of Healthy Start Pittsburgh, and La’Tasha Mayes, outgoing president and CEO of New Voices For Reproductive Justice.
It’s also unacceptable in the eyes of the federal government. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a federal agency, compiled the statistics and released the eye-opening data.
Another government agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, last year announced the creation of the Infant Health Equity Project, where Healthy Start agencies across the country would work on an action plan to help reduce disparities in infant mortality in their regions. Recently, 21 Healthy Start entities, including the Pittsburgh agency, received part of a $1.6 million grant to assist in the action plan’s creation, which would incorporate data-driven policy and strategies. Healthy Start Pittsburgh received $80,000.
The Healthy Start Pittsburgh action plan will be revealed to the public during Black Maternal Health Week, April 11-17, but before it can be completed, the public will have an opportunity to give input on the proposed action plan.
“This is not a single issue,” said Shirriel, during Healthy Start Pittsburgh’s two-day virtual “Town Hall for Infant Health Equity,” held March 1-2. “We’re looking at workforce issues, the care that our moms receive, the environments and the communities that they live in…very complex issues that we’re working to synthesize down to some priorities that we can actually take action on locally. In five years, we envision a different reality for moms and babies in Allegheny County.”
The infant mortality rate for Black women was 14.9 per 1,000 live births in Allegheny County in 2016, which was almost five times the rate for White women (3.3). Pennsylvania’s infant mortality rate for Black women was 14.6.
LA’TASHA MAYES, founder and outgoing president/CEO of New Voices For Reproductive Justice.
Mayes, a keynote speaker for the virtual town hall, said that while Black maternal health is one of her organization’s three priority issues, it became the main issue when the pandemic hit.
“It changed the DNA of our organization,” Mayes said.
The COVID-19 pandemic, she said, exposed that “families that are already on the social, economic and political margins” could fall behind even further without the help of organizations like New Voices For Reproductive Justice. The organization constantly helped mothers attain everything from diapers and menstrual products, to $40,000 in cash grants, new mama baskets, yoga memberships, free emergency contraception, free laundry services and toy drives during the holidays.
“That’s what our communities needed,” Mayes said. “We now employ a bread-and-roses approach. We can’t ask you to fight for justice if you need diapers, if you need rental assistance. Again, that is the intersectional, transformational power of reproductive justice as a movement, as a framework, but also as a practice. And that was such a powerful time in New Voices and continues to influence how we engage Black mamas in our work, who are more at the center of the work that we do because we know that Black mamas are first and most impacted by so many of the issues that New Voices is addressing in the justice realm, in the policy realm, in the organizing realm.”
DARA MENDEZ, PH.D., with the University of Pittsburgh.
Healthy Start Pittsburgh brought together a “core group” of individuals who have been working on the action plan for more than a year, including: Alysia Davis (March of Dimes); Demia Horsley (Healthy Start); Amy Malen, (Allegheny County Department of Human Services); Noble Maseru, Ph.D. (University of Pittsburgh); Dara Mendez, Ph.D. (University of Pittsburgh); Dannai Wilson (Allegheny County Health Department); and Shirriel.
DANNAI WILSON, with the Allegheny County Health Department.
There is a “coalition” group as well, comprised of 28 individuals in a supporting role in creating the action plan, which includes Muffy Mendoza of Brown Mamas, Rochelle Jackson of Black Women’s Policy Center, and Dawndra Jones of UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital.
The public input session will be held, virtually, on Monday, March 14, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. To receive a link to register for the session, email Ashley Comans, Healthy Start Inc., Pittsburgh marketing, communications and development coordinator, at acomans@hsipgh.org, or call 412-247-4009.
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