BUFFALO, NY — Earlier this month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that a new Vital Statistics Rapid Release report from the National Center for Health Statistics shows that the provisional infant mortality rate for the United States in 2022 rose 3% from the previous year.
According to the report, it's the first year-to-year increase in the rate since 2001-2002, from 2002 to 2021 the infant mortality rate declined 22%.
Infant boys and babies who are white or Indigenous born at 37 weeks or earlier had a significant death rate increase by almost 2- percent.
7 News spoke to three local organizations about what they are doing to ensure children remain safe.
"That's something you can never do, you'll never get over the loss of a child," said Emily Doring, the Executive Director for the Western New York Perinatal Bereavement Network.
10 years ago, Doring had two miscarriages. Doring said the hardest part was losing the life she had dreamed of for her children.
"You're not just grieving the loss of the child, you're grieving their future that you had planned together. Like taking them to kindergarten for the first time, or the first time in high school or their first dates or their marriage," said Doring, who uses her work at WNYPBN to support and help families who have lost their babies.
The Buffalo Prenatal Perinatal Network is another resource that has stepped in to help families in need.
"We see their refrigerator is empty, we see the pregnant woman is laying on the floor because she doesn't have a bed," said LuAnne Brown, President of the BPPN.
Brown says that through their three key programs like Healthy Family Program, Community Health Worker Program and the Buffalo Fatherhood Initiative, mothers and families get the information that can save lives, through donations of clothes, formula and transportation to doctor's appointments.
"It all starts with moms and babies, if you want those babies to grow up to be responsible adults, they have to have healthy childhoods to develop into healthy adults, so they can be contributing citizens into this community," said Brown.
Since the March of Dimes gave New York State a C in their report card last year for infant mortality rate, 7 News spoke with the Director of Maternal Infant Health, who says to get the rate lower, more needs to be done to ensure moms and babies are healthy.
"The point of the report card is to raise awareness and to start conservations about these problems. We are in the middle of an infant mortal loss crisis and these numbers just show it," said Darcy Dreyer.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced new legislation has been signed to address maternal and infant mortality rates.
The legislation directs the NYSDOH to create and maintain a directory of doulas. In addition, doula services now will be covered for Medicaid enrollees starting on January 1 and $4.5 million has been allocated in the state budget to support perinatal centers.
You can connect with BPPN here.
You can connect with Western New York Perinatal Bereavement Network here.
