GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — October is Infant Loss Awareness Month. However, Monday is part of a week highlighting Black Infant Loss, which happens at a much higher rate than others. On Monday, moms across the country lit a candle forBlack Baby Loss Awareness Week, raising awareness of disparities and remembering those babies gone too soon.
“Why are our babies and moms dying?” asked Lyanna Moore.
It’s a question that inspired her to become a doula and create Moore 2 Love Doula Services.
“After hearing the stories of other people in my community and through my experience as a mom, I wanted to make a change,” said Moore.
For two-and-a-half years she’s been helping moms here in Grand Rapids throughout their birthing experience. Offering support, education, and even asking tough questions. She says during the birth planning stages, she discusses the tough topic of how moms would like to move forward if something happened to them or their baby. Although it’s something they may not want to think about, she says it does happen.
It’s something Moore has seen happen to several of her friends, including one she shared the joy of being pregnant with at the same time. Unfortunately, her friend's baby didn’t make it.
“That was a challenging time for me, not only as her friend, but also carrying the baby myself, and so there was that fear of like this could still happen,” said Moore.
It's a fear that no family should experience, which is why she says something needs to be done.
“We just really need that awareness to talk about these topics and understand what's going on, and figure out how to support our community in those times and how to prevent this from happening as much as we can,” said Moore.
Peggy Vander Muelen is the program director at Strong Beginnings, an organization created in the 90s to address high rates of Black infant mortality through a partnership with several agencies in Kent County.
“So this has been ongoing for decades and decades here in this country, if not centuries, and the fact that it is still ongoing really merits attention,” said Vander Muelen.
The latest data in Kent County shows that Black infants are dying at 3.6 times the rate of White infants.
Vander Muellen says the main cause for Black infant deaths includes premature births and low birth weights. Other causes can be sudden infant death syndrome, suffocation from unsafe sleep practices, genetic abnormalities, and diseases. However, she believes a big part of the issue is structural and systemic racism disproportionately affecting Black moms and ultimately affecting the survival rate of their babies.
“Alerting healthcare providers to their own biases, so then they can work to address those and really hear women, hear birthing persons, when they speak up,” said Vander Muellen.
She says other solutions include continuing implicit bias training, having policies that support maternal and child health, livable wages and affordable healthcare so that everybody has access to equitable and good quality health care.
This year marks the second year of National Black Baby Loss Awareness Week. You can find more information on Strong Beginnings here. For more information on Moore 2 Love Doula Services, click here.
