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Historical Perspective
Black Infant Health Practice Initiative
On December 19, 2006, The CentralHillsborough County Federal Healthy Start (CHHS) Project, led by Estrellita "Lo" Berry, Project Director/Principal Investigator and Dr. Deborah Austin, Community Services, Outreach and Communication Manager, called an emergency Call to Action meeting to present disturbing Hillsborough County trends/data in infant mortality and morbidity to key maternal and child health African American community stakeholders.
Preliminary data (from the Healthy Start Coalition of Hillsborough County, Florida Department of Health, and The Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies) showed, among other trends, that the number of Black babies dying in the first year of life increased from 17.6 deaths per live births in 2001 to 22.7 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2005.
Florida Representative Betty Reed (Dem-59), and Ms. Kimberly Hall, Legislative Assistant to Florida Senator Arthenia Joyner (Dem-18), were in attendance at this planning and organizational meeting. Senator Joyner has been a staunch supporter of CHHS for over 6 years and had recently been in dialogue with insurance providers about creating community partnerships to decrease low birth weight and infant mortality. Representative Reed has personal experiences with tragedies that occur when women and infants do not have ideal outcomes. Her own mother passed away in child birth and she herself has lost a granddaughter in infancy. Thus, improving systems to decrease infant mortality and improve pregnancy outcomes for African American women is dear to both their hearts.
With assistance from REACHUP, Inc. (Respond, Educate, Advocate, Collaborate for Health in Underserved Populations), Dr. Barbara Morrison-Rodriguez, Executive Board Member; the Healthy Start Coalition of Hillsborough County, led by Executive Director, Jane Murphy, and Associate Executive Director, Leisa Stanley; CHHS; and Delores “Dee” Jeffers, Perinatal Systems Specialist, The Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center, Senator Joyner drafted SB 2120 to create a Black Infant Health Practice Initiative designed to identify factors in the health and social services systems contributing to higher mortality rates among African-American infants. Representative Reed introduced the companion bill, HB 1269, in the House of Representatives. HB1269, the Black Infant Mortality Bill, passed the House and Senate, appropriating $1mil to the Department of Health to implement the program. Priority of grant awards were given to those coalitions representing counties having an average nonwhite infant mortality rate at least 1.75 times greater than the white infant mortality rate between 2003 and 2005 and an average of at least 40 nonwhite infant deaths between 2003 and 2005 for urban counties or an average of at least 5 nonwhite infant deaths between 2003 and 2005 for rural counties. The urban counties included Hillsborough, Duval, Palm Beach, Orange, Dade, Broward and the rural counties, Gadsden and Putnam, all comprising the Black Infant Health Practice Initiative (BIHPI).
Gov. Charlie Crist signed the Bill in Tampa on Monday, July 2, 2007, 10:00 am, at the College Hill Branch of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System, 2607 E. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.
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