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Franklin County's Infant Mortality Rate Improving, But Racial Disparity Remains

CelebrateOne Facebook page

The effort to reduce Columbus and Franklin County's infant mortality continues making progress, but the racial disparity remains. Since the formation of CelebrateOne, the region has improved from 8.4 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2014 to 6.9 in 2019.

Sleep-related infant deaths dropped from 27 in 2018 to 17 last year, according to CelebrateOne statistics. The coalition distributed more than 1,400 portable safe sleep cribs and trained about 900 Safe Sleep Ambassadors to help educate new parents. The next challenge involves addressing the racial disparity.

"Non-Hispanic Black babies die at a rate that is 2.5 times higher than Non-Hispanic White babies," Columbus Mayor Andy Ginther said. "In the next phase of this work, we will be laser focused on addressing racism and its impact on birth outcomes. To get there, we must strengthen partnerships in our community and develop aggressive new strategies, programs, and interventions."

Part of that involves expanding work with African American service organizations, according to CelebrateOne executive director Maureen Stapleton. 

stapleton.mp3

"A good example of this is (ROOTT) Restoring Our Own Through Transformation, which reports providing full spectrum doula services with 100 births between 2018-2020," Stapleton continued. "There were zero maternal and infant deaths with only 6 percent NICU stays. That's impressive, and we need to replicate that work."

The city and CelebrateOne will also be seeking stakeholder and community input on innovative ways to provide services to make sure babies are born healthy and thrive as they grow. While the region saw a brief infant mortality spike at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stapleton said it returned to 6.9 by the end of the third quarter. Columbus and Franklin County did experience a decline of premature births in 2020, part of national trend that's attributed at least in part to coronavirus safety protocols.

Mike Foley joined WCBE in February 2000, coming from WUFT in Gainesville, Florida. Foley has worked in various roles, from producing news and feature stories to engineering Live From Studio A sessions. A series of music features Foley started in 2018 called Music Journeys has grown into a podcast and radio show. He also assists in developing other programs in WCBE's Podcast Experience. Foley hosts The Morning Mix, a weekday music show featuring emerging and established musicians, our Columbus-area and Ohio-based talent, and additional artists that inspire him.
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