The 2019 Infant Mortality Alliance Annual Stakeholder Summit:  Let's Talk!

Our community’s most important resource is human potential:  the talents, skills, and energy that all people bring to a society. As a community we should do everything possible to ensure that babies are born healthy and can reach their fullest potential in life.

Yet, that potential is often diminished in a society that remains unequal. Health inequities have negative consequences, including higher rates of African American women dying from pregnancy complications and giving birth prematurely. Prematurity is the number one cause of death for African American babies.

Historically, institutional systems like education, housing, criminal justice, and health care have disproportionately channeled stressful conditions onto minority communities. These conditions generate a state of chronic and severe adversity known as toxic stress, a driving factor behind the higher rates of Black maternal mortality and premature birth.

Join with the Alliance as we acknowledge that racism is prevalent in our community and collectively engage in conversations on ways to remove barriers and create solutions. Let’s Talk! about what we can do to ensure that babies are born healthy and with the opportunity to reach their fullest potential.