FLORENCE, Ala. — According to the CDC, the state of Alabama is the 5th leading state in the country when it comes to infant mortality.
FOX54 spoke to a University of North Alabama assistant professor/director of Tiny Cubs organization, Ann-Marie Irons about the importance of educating folks about infant and maternal health care, especially here locally.
Infant mortality is the death of an infant before his or her first birthday.
This rate is determined by the number of infant deaths for every 1,000 live births.
"Unfortunately for Northwest Alabama, we still have some of the highest infant mortality," said Irons.
Also according to the CDC's most recent data, in Alabama, there are 7.2 infant deaths per 1,000 live births.
The folks over at UNA decided to do something to combat this, by creating Tiny Cubs: "to meet a need for our community, for our expectant mothers-to-be, as well as our nursing students," said Irons.
Tiny Cubs holds community baby showers where mothers and mothers-to-be can learn more about things like: car seat safety, safe sleep practices, and breastfeeding.
Whereas UNA nursing students are taking courses in maternal health care.
The World Health Organization defines maternal health as the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period.
"Recognizing assessing cues earliest so important in the delivery and postpartum process, as well as intervening quickly," said Irons.
These nurses are learning that the health of the baby, is directly related to the overall health of the mother.
"We focus on mental health and if you have the signs and symptoms, who would you call? We make sure that they go home with written information."
The next community baby shower hosted by Tiny Cubs will be on November 5th at Harrison Hall at the University of North Alabama.
This will be a time of education and sharing knowledge that will eventually help save lives.
"We have all ages, all you know, all races coming in and saying, 'this is my third baby,' but, 'you see her over there? She's told me something I'd never have heard before,'" said Irons.
