On Wednesday, we announced a $1 million renewal grant to the Health Department and Family League of Baltimore City from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst), to sustain the City’s B’more for Healthy Babies campaign helping to reduce infant mortality. The award builds on CareFirst’s initial $3 million grant, extending the program through 2013.

B’more for Healthy Babies is a major citywide public health initiative to reduce the city’s high rate of infant deaths and promote healthy families. The initiative seeks to build widespread involvement in preventing infant deaths through policy and systems change, by educating providers, and through community outreach and mobilization. The program’s guiding mission is to ensure that all Baltimore babies are born full-term, at a healthy weight, and ready to thrive in healthy families.

With a slogan of “Every Baby Counts on You,” the initiative seeks to engage all community members, including parents, relatives, caregivers, medical professionals, social workers, teachers, business leaders, and others, in preventing infant deaths.

 

When the B’more for Healthy Babies initiative was launched, Baltimore had the fourth highest infant mortality rate in the country. Last August, Governor Martin O’Malley joined Mayor Rawlings-Blake in announcing that the City’s infant mortality rate fell by 19 percent in 2010. The African American infant mortality rate fell by 21 percent, while the white rate remained relatively stable, yet significant disparities between the two remain. Additionally, unsafe sleep-related deaths dropped 40 percent compared to the previous year. Preliminary 2011 data indicates a sustained downward trend in infant deaths due to unsafe sleep environments.

The new funding will be used by to provide oversight of the two targeted community programs, Upton Druid Heights and Patterson Park North & East. Both communities have historically high rates of infant mortality. It will also be used to support expanded service provider outreach, policy and systems change, and a citywide communication campaign.

I am proud of the tremendous strides we’ve made in reducing infant deaths through the B’more for Healthy Babies campaign. Ensuring the health and well-being of our children and mothers is imperative if the city is to meet our goal of adding 10,000 new families by 2020. By investing in Baltimore families, CareFirst has once again demonstrated its commitment to preventive health and improving the lives of the city’s most vulnerable residents.

The Health Department and Family League of Baltimore have leveraged CareFirst’s support to raise $3.3 million in additional grant funding for the B’more for Healthy Babies initiative.

For more information on the B’more for Healthy Babies campaign, visit www.HealthyBabiesBaltimore.com.