Health officials call for community action against child mortality and premature birth

Healthy Me Healthy Babies, a coalition of state-funded Smith County public health officials, sponsored the event with the Northeastern Texas District Public Health District, also known as the NET Health's name, and the city of Tyler.

"When you think of child and maternal mortality, is this problem just family-related?" Asked Susan Rodriguez, chair of the Healthy Me Healthy Babies coalition. "No, it belongs to the whole community."

Friday's march took place ahead of March of Dimes World Preterm Awareness Day on Saturday. March of Dimes is a national, non-profit organization that promotes healthy outcomes for mothers and babies. The foundation is grounded in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's research on disability because of polio and was formerly known as the National Foundation for Childhood Paralysis.

Rodriguez pointed to the high infant mortality rate in Smith County. She urged those present to speak with their counterparts about the issue and services available to pregnant women to help them achieve a healthy pregnancy. For example, she said she spoke to a random person and is now planning to present a presentation on pregnancy health options to a group of about 30 women.

Numerous national, regional and national studies have found racial disparities in infant and maternal mortality rates in Texas and northeastern Texas. A March of Dimes 2016 data book estimated the infant mortality rate of the state to white women at 5.1 per 1,000 births, compared with 5.3 for Hispanic women and 10.7 for black women.

The trend was similar for prematurity and underweight at birth – two risk factors for the death of a baby before his first birthday. The rate of prematurity for white women was 9.8% between 2010 and 2012, compared to 10.1% for Hispanic women and 14% for black women. White women had a low birth weight birth rate of 7.3%, compared to 7.6% for Hispanic women and 13.4% for black women.

Tecora Smith, NET Health's director for women, infants and children, said women and their families should challenge public health officials like her to show how they work to improve the situation. She also called for more public health officials to tell their own stories.

Smith stated that she had been interested in health care when she had used the WIC program herself and that she wanted families to know it so that they would know about it. that they were not alone. She also recounted how her sister gave birth to a stillborn baby who was born prematurely by natural birth, but then had three healthy children.

"They forced her to give birth," she said of the doctors who worked with her sister. "It touched me. I cried when she cried. It hurt me and she asked me, "Do I have to do it?" I said, "Yes. I need you to push. "You know it hurts?" But I needed her to do that because I gave her hope.

"I said, you know what, we're going to work on what you eat. We will examine your support circle. And you know what? You are going to have a baby, but I need your patience while we are preparing your body for another baby, "Smith said.

Tasha Wade, 27, of Tyler, was one of four women in the audience who rose when another speaker of the event asked those who had gave birth prematurely to get up. She said in an interview that she had lost the baby, Oasah William, at the age of 2 days.

Wade, 25, and pregnant for 24 weeks at the time, said she was suffering from a condition called preeclampsia, a complication of pregnancy that includes high blood pressure. She said the doctors suspected the cause might be a blood pressure problem or the fact that it was her first pregnancy.

Now, she said that she was focusing on her own health so she could carry a baby to term in the future. "I will have children again someday," she said.

TWITTER and INSTAGRAM: @_erinmansfield