Northeast Ohio works to reduce infant mortality rates

In Ohio, 982 infants died before their first birthday in 2017.

In Cuyahoga County, 118 died while in Geauga there were four infant deaths. Lake County had six infant deaths and Lorain County had 21.

According to a report released Dec. 18, by the Ohio Department of Health, this is the only the second time that the number has dropped below 1,000 infant deaths in one year since the state started tracking infant mortality rates in 1939.

While it may appear the infant mortality rates may be in decline, that is only partially true. There is a disparity in birth outcomes, according to the report, that shows black infants are dying at three times the rate of white infants.

There were nine counties and metropolitan areas in the state that accounted for close to twothirds of all infant deaths and 90 percent of black infant deaths. Cleveland/ Cuyahoga County made that list.

Richard Stacklin, data analyst for the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, lists the three main causes of infant deaths in Cuyahoga as prematurity, unsafe sleep-related deaths and and birth defects.

Infant mortality rates are calculated on a percentage of deaths per 1,000 lives births. Stacklin reports that the rate in Cuyahoga for 2017 was at 8.1 percent which is lower than than 2016 when it was 8.7 percent.

For 2018 Stacklin estimate they are at about the same rate as the previous year. He also reports the highest he seen in recent years was in 2014 when mortality rates spiked at 10.5.

According to Stacklin, about 50-60 percent of the infant deaths in Cuyahoga County are related to premature birth and the prematurity related deaths were five times higher for black babies than white babies in 2017.

Angela Newman-White, grant supervisor for the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, points out that the disparity in death rates between white and black infants is based on the impact of structural and institutional racisim and stress associated with being a person of color and such stress could send a woman prematurely into labor.

“There is no biological difference black and white women but the lived experience and the actual composition of neighborhoods plays a determinant role,” Smith said.

Most of the deaths that occur are in the city of Cleveland and the ring of Eastside suburbs, where most of the communities have a higher percentage of black population.

In addition to deaths from premature births and other risk factors from mothers who smoke during pregnancy, the county sees a number of infant deaths as a result of babies being in an unsafe sleeping situation.

The Health Board is looking at both evidence-based programs and some innovative ways to try to reduce the infant mortality rate in the county.

One of the program they utilize, which is also used by Lorain and Lake counties, is the Safe Sleep Program or Cribs for Kids Program.

Cribs for Kids is a program funded through grant money from the Ohio Department of Health that allow agencies like the Health Board to provide cribettes (pack and play) to a mother who is 32 weeks pregnant or has an infant under the age of 1 in the house and needs a safe place for the infant to sleep.

The county gives out an estimated 500-800 cribettes a year through the program along with providing training on how to safely lay an infant down to sleep.

The county is also reaching out to churches as part of a faith-based program to provide stipends for churches to create or enhance friendly breastfeeding areas. They also have the centering pregnancy program and the Birthing Beautiful Communities program.

They have also been able to with the help of extra funding through Medicaid been able to expand the home visiting program and the Moms and Babies first Program.

Geauga and Lake counties don’t have the race disparity that Cuyahoga and Lorain counties do. Most of the infants death in Geauga and Lake were a result of unsafe sleep situations.

Geauga County, which according to its Health District is one of the healthiest counties in Ohio, saw only four infant deaths in 2017 and most of their programs for infants such as the Women, Infants, and Children Program are administered through Lake County.

Lake County had six infant deaths in 2017, four of them were the results of unsafe sleeping conditions.

“The one thing that stood out in 2017 was the amount of infants we had pass away due to unsafe sleep conditions,” said Tara Perkins, director of nursing for Lake County General Health District. “Lake County is a smaller county in Ohio. We do have a decent population with roughly 238,000 people who reside in Lake County, but four in a county of our size is concerning.”

Lake County General Health District just implemented the Cribs for Kids program in October 2018 to help provide parents provide a safe sleep environment for their infants.