In 2014, when Birthing Beautiful Communities (BBC) was officially launched as an agency to support women who are at highest risk for infant death, the conversations about the leading causes of infant mortality were focused largely on ZIP codes.
“Today, we would throw the ZIP code conversation out the window,” explains Jazmin Long, President and CEO of BBC. “We know that racism is the driver of infant mortality. For African American women, socioeconomic status and ZIP codes don’t matter.”
On the national level, conversations and intentional efforts to address the social determinants of health have driven this shift. But on the local level, the work of grassroots community organizations like BBC have played a significant role not only in advancing the conversation on the causes of infant mortality, but also doing the work of putting structures and services in place that enable mothers and infants who are most at risk to thrive.
BBC works closely with Case Western Reserve University, and specifically with First Year Cleveland and the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. “It’s great to work with the university because we want to have evidence-based data. You need to be able to look at this through a research lens to think about whether your approach makes sense,” says Long, who also is a Mandel school alumna.
Since BBC was initially formed by a collective of Black doulas in 2014, it has expanded to provide labor support, life goal planning, childbirth and parents services, and support groups. Each year, BBC serves an estimated 700 clients in Summit and Cuyahoga Counties. And as BBC’s services have expanded and as more people have been engaged in conversations about institutional and structural racism, the funding landscape for grassroots organizations also has changed for the better.
“Funders are willing to make larger investments in organizations like BBC—there’s an understanding now that we need larger amounts of funding in order to touch more families,” Long says. “I think that’s a testament to a shift in how our community is learning and thinking about infant mortality.”
In fact, on March 19, Birthing Beautiful Communities received its largest gift to date—a $2 million award for general operations from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott’s Yield Giving. BBC was one of 361 community led nonprofits who were selected from a pool of more than 6,000 applicants.
Last year, BBC launched its first-ever capital campaign to raise money for the construction of a new birthing center in the Hough neighborhood, near the intersection of E. 65th and Chester Avenue. Construction on the $15 million, 15,000-square-foot birthing center is expected to begin this fall, with completion in 2025. So far, BBC is 20-percent of the way to its fundraising goal and has received support from the City of Cleveland, the Cleveland Foundation and the Gund Foundation, among others.
More importantly, thanks to the work of BBC, in combination with support from organizations like First Year Cleveland, infant mortality rates in Cuyahoga County have declined in recent years. In 2022, the infant mortality rate was 7.2 per 1,000 live births—the lowest annual rate in the county’s history. However, that progress is tempered by news late last year that Black infant mortality increased slightly from 12.1 in 2021 to 12.9 in 2022, following two years of declines. The data indicated that Black babies were still more than three times more likely than white babies to die before reaching their first birthday.
Long encourages people to write to state legislators to enact policy changes, or make donations of diapers to groups like BBC, or teach a class for organizations that support women who are most at risk.
“Everyone has a role to play because this is a problem that touches all of us, whether we’re parents or not,” Long says. “If our babies aren’t well, then our community isn’t well. And we can’t be a world-class city with these kinds of abysmal infant mortality rates.”
Learn more about BBC and how you can support women at highest risk of infant mortality.