Keeping Chester moms healthy
CHESTER » For many parents and expecting mothers, childbirth adds a dynamic responsibility to the challenges that many face in the city of Chester.
For 25 years, the CrozerKeystone Community Foundation has aimed to ease the challenges for low-income and minority individuals who lack the resources and support to create a thriving family united.
The goal, as spelled out by founder and current Vice President of Programs for the Community Foundation Joanne Craig, was to reduce the instances of infant mortality in Chester, which she said in 1992 was “off the Richter scale.”
“Chester had a rate equivalent or greater than a third-world country,” Craig said about the 22 per 1,000 infant deaths the city was experiencing in the early ‘90’s. “Cuba was doing better than we were at the time.”
Twenty-five years later, Craig said the number in Chester is still high – the average is around six infant deaths per 1,000 – and didn’t want to take credit for the drop to the present rate of 15 infant deaths per 1,000, but said the Community Foundation was making strides in promoting public health for residents.
“We have well-qualified, trained staff, case managers and nurses that go into the homes and they work with families, provide care coordination, case management and home visiting, health education, and they make sure the families are connected to health care,” Craig said. “We help connect them to resources.”
A variety of programs that work under the umbrella of CKCF help coordinate soon-to-be mothers and families with an aid network that eases the weight of both planned and unplanned pregnancy. Healthy Start is a 20-yearold program that helps people in the city of Chester. Nurse-Family Partnership serves the whole county.
Both require aid packages from state and federal grants, which are highly competitive. CKCF must compete against 300 similar communities around the United States. Only about a third receive the necessary funding.
However, for a quarter century, the aid offered to the Chester community has bolstered the lives of hundreds of families every year.
Octavia Burton, 36 weeks pregnant with her second child, said that during her first pregnancy the aid offered from Healthy Start gave her a much needed “sense of security.” Her son Tejon, 5, was born with a kidney condition that affects him to this day. She said the help of her case worker, Ursula, gave her both the support she needed as well as the knowledge to be a more caring mother.
“I was always on edge, I had stillborns before, and once you lose a child you’re on edge all the time,” said Burton, 30. “They gave me the ability to work around my schedule and still be able to check up on my son.”
MOMS » PAGE 16