Meeting Focuses On Fight
To Save Southeast Queens’ Babies

BY TARA THOMAS

One of every 100 children born to the families of Jamaica, South Jamaica, Springfield Gardens, South Ozone Park, Hollis, Queens Village, St. Albans, Cambria Heights, Arverne, and Rockaway Beach will likely die, according to City statistics, because they were born in the City’s third highest local, for infant mortality.

It’s a problem which Case Coordinator Mildred Corniff at South Jamaica’s Queens Comprehensive Perinatal Council, Inc. (QCPC) says we can’t just call a “problem.” The deaths are more “like an epidemic.” 

Corniff’s daily responsibilities include, but are by no means limited to, identifying women of child-bearing age (15-44) and outreach with health education workshops.  

In the line of duty, she and her colleague Kim Nixon often encounter mothers who deliver children prematurely, with low birth weight or developmental disabilities and are “in denial” regarding the negative life patterns that contribute to a high infant mortality rate.  One such pattern is domestic violence.

On May 15, the QCPC held its “Infant Mortality Awareness Day” at the Harvest Room in the Jamaica Farmer’s Market.  The organizers explained that infant mortality is officially defined as the death of a child less than or equal to one-year-old, a forum on the topic in a location named for a time of abundance and flourishing is sadly ironic.

According to infant mortality statistics released by the City Department of Health last month, approximately one out of every 140 live births in New York City have resulted in early death. 

When the focus is placed on the Jamaica East community (comprised of the Jamaica, South Jamaica, Springfield Gardens, South Ozone Park, Hollis, Queens Village, St. Albans, Cambria Heights, Arverne, and Rockaway Beach neighborhoods) in particular, the ratio narrows, claiming one out of every one hundred live births in the area.  This proportion, equivalent to an infant mortality rate (IMR) index of 10.0, makes infant mortality occurrence in Jamaica East the third highest in the City, close behind Ft. Greene, Brooklyn and Central Harlem, Manhattan.

Moderated by Pamela Williams and Wendy Dominguez of QCPC’s Maternal/Child Health divisions, approximately 15 health and social service professionals gathered to discuss their current efforts and the next steps in combating this problem.

Attendee and QCPC client Providencia Giboyeaux was a long-time abuse victim, the physical trauma from which could have posed a significant threat to the life and health of her children.

She became introduced to QCPC’s services by an impromptu meeting with Kim Nixon, who happened to be conducting outreach in a supermarket within the parameters of her focus on the 11433 zip code region. 

With the program’s help, she removed herself from the abusive situation and slowly began rebuilding her life. 

Giboyeaux’s story supports the fact that high IMRs aren’t always the result of parental incompetence or youth, as is often assumed, but can also stem from other origins. 

For instance, an abusive man and the relationship’s resultant stress were probably the most damaging elements in Providencia and seven-month-old Chloe’s lives.

Addressing these often neglected aspects were Hakim Nkrumah of the Jamaica Fathers Project and Michael Farca, Center Director of the Citywide organization, Community Healthcare Network. 

Nkrumah’s program seeks to offer balance to family health issues by focusing on males between the ages of 14 and 40. 

Offering independent and group counseling, parent education, mentoring and employment help, a main goal of the Jamaica Fathers Project is to “assist fathers in becoming better fathers” so as to contribute positively to the family and foster the healthy growth of “the most helpless, vulnerable segment of our population” — infants. 

Farca, whose CHN hosts nine fixed centers and four mobile service units, addressed the element of his clients’ “full psycho-social assessment,” accenting that mental and emotional factors also contribute to a high IMR.

Central to the forum was the financial aspect of South Jamaica’s infant mortality crisis. 

Last year, advocacy groups and health care providers such as QCPC fought for and received affirmation of a $5 million budget for infant mortality reduction initiatives from the city’s Department of Health (DOH). 

Since Sept. 11 and Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s induction, however, that budget has undergone a bloodletting resulting in a new budget of $700,000. 

These and related programs, such as the DOH and the Southeast Queens Clergy for Community Empowerment-sponsored Lead Safe House Program, are expected to suffer tremendously.

And when the groups talked about money, the meeting turned into a call to arms.

Promoting active awareness was the general consensus in regard to the budget.

The organizers asked those who attended to spread the word and adamantly contact respective government agencies and other “collective eye-openers,” suggested Senior Liaison to Councilman Comrie Maylean Thompson. 

Since the initiative’s subjects are the simplest in society, perhaps this primary aim is best described in the simplest of terms, as offered by the Birthing Project’s coordinator Judy Ramirez. 

“Our babies don’t have a voice, so the government is not really hearing [their concerns].  We’ll have to speak for them.”

The day after the forum, word came from Albany that Governor George Pataki had signed into law a bill that would promote advances in research and prevention of one fatal issue in the lives of babies — Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

The new law will require the adoption of standard autopsy protocols for any child under the age of one year who dies of unknown causes.

The autopsy protocols will be established by the New York State Health Department in consultation with SIDS experts, health professionals, families and others.

Pataki said, “The death of an infant is tragic in under any circumstance, and the trauma can be further compounded when the cause of death is unknown. We’ve greatly reduced the number of SIDS cases since 1994, but there are still too many unexplained and heartbreaking tragedies. This new law will enhance the research being conducted by health care professionals across the State, and represents a key step forward in our ongoing effort to reduce the threat that SIDS poses for our children.”

A spokesperson for the Governor added that, “in addition to greatly enhancing SIDS research and prevention, the adoption of uniform protocols will help ensure that comprehensive autopsies are conducted in every suspected SIDS case, so that parents can feel confident that the SIDS diagnosis is in fact the right diagnosis.”