The School of Medicine and Siegal Lifelong Learning Program will host the third webinar in its Racial Disparity, Social Justice and the Opioid Crisis series Wednesday, Sept. 16, from 1 to 4:30 p.m. EST. The topic of this webinar will be “Achieving Health Equity for Black Mothers and Infants.”
In the United States, Black mothers die during pregnancy and childbirth at three times the rate of white mothers, while Black infants die at seven times the rate of white babies. Cuyahoga County has had one of the worst rates of infant mortality in the country for five decades. Members of the university community are invited to a keynote address on Black maternal and infant mortality followed by a panel of Black birth workers and community health experts from across the country discussing how we can achieve equity for Black mothers and infants.
The following presentations will be part of the event:
- Arthur James, senior consultant at First Year Cleveland, will present the address “Infant Mortality Equity in Ohio … a Dream Deferred.”
- Erika Hood, program development manager at CWRU and MetroHealth’s Center for Reducing Health Disparities and community engagement consultant with 44128:One Community, will present “44128:The Story of One Community’s Fight to Save Black Babies.”
- Birthing Beautiful Communities Team, a village of doulas from Cleveland who provide social support to pregnant women at the highest risk for infant mortality during the perinatal period, will present their evidence-based strategies for addressing the social determinants that impact infant mortality.
- Stephanie Mitchell, nurse, midwife and director of the forthcoming Birth Sanctuary Gainesville in Western Alabama, will present “Labor and Birth, it is your Business.”