Place Matters: The Decline of Infant Mortality in Dane County
Hooray for the children
Hooray for the children
Hershey Barnett-Bridges was an outreach nurse with the Madison Health Department before it merged with the Dane County Health
Department. She and other African American health professionals began to engage the African American community on health issues.
“Some of the ways that we do that is we are a part of the community,” Barnett-Bridges said. “We go to the same churches in the African
American community. We are involved in the same sports. We’re involved in schools that the same people who we are wanting to help go to.
That’s one of the ways to actually get the community focused on health care. You need to have a relationship with the community. Some of us,
because of our jobs, have a close relationship with the community. How we get health care straightened out? I think it is change over time.
But not necessarily the health care itself. The African American community has a different idea in how to use the services. They’ve been
educated in a way to say ‘These are some of the things we need to do for a healthy child.’ Then they leave from the hospital, clinic or whatever
and they go and tell their friends and family ‘You need to do such and such if you want the baby to be healthy.’ So the education comes from
not just the health care itself, but the community going back to the community saying ‘These are the things that are very helpful.’ That’s the part
that is most important. I don’t think it is the health care itself. I think it’s the community buying into healthy families and healthy children and
then going back and educating the rest of the community about the importance of doing that.”
Betty Banks was there at the beginning of the Harambee Center collaboration when it started in the old Knights of Columbus building on
Hughes Street. The collaboration allowed the health professional community and the African American community to come together for the
care of the parents and children. “We built relationships,” Banks emphasized. “We provided education about health care. We helped people
understand the importance of taking control of their own health care and the health care of their children. We provided ways for parents and
others to be able to interact with decision-makers, interact with health care providers and social service workers. And we provided a place
at the table for the community.”
For Doris Franklin, another nurse with the Dane County-Madison Health Department, over the course of many years, empowering African
American parents has made a difference. “I am a public servant,” Franklin emphasized. “And I always thank my clients for letting me serve
them so I can go as far as they need to go. On the day that I see them, they may not want any information from me. The next day they see me,
they are just ready to open like a book and I can just pour information into them. I want to meet them wherever they are.”
For Krystyn Jones, having her mother and father, Andrea and Max, feeling empowered over healthcare issues was the difference between life
and death. Max, who had been very involved in Andrea’s pregnancy back in 2000, woke up after a bad dream and told Andrea he felt that
something was wrong. They went to their doctor and said they wanted an ultrasound performed. Thinking that they were just trying to
determine the sex of the baby, the doctor said no. Max persisted and when told he would have to pay for the ultrasound, he said go ahead and
do it.
The ultrasound showed that Krystyn had spins bifida. The Jones changed doctors to Dr. Davidson at St. Mary’s Hospital who had a
specialty in the area. “If we hadn’t gotten this ultrasound, either my child would have come out worse than what the results would be or she
would have been dead,” Andrea Jones said. “Dr. Davidson scheduled a C-section so that I wouldn’t push her out vaginally because of the
spina bifida. We delivered her and she lived. She spent almost 10 weeks at St. Mary’s. The St. Mary’s staff was phenomenal. Dr. Davidson
was phenomenal. Dr. Davidson’s staff called her the mystery baby because they didn’t know what was going on with her. When she came out,
she ended up with meningitis on top of the spina bifida. Now here she is today almost nine years later.”
A video has been created by the health department called “Place Matters: The Decline in Infant Mortality in Dane County” that depicts the
Dane County phenomenon and tries to explain how it happened. “We have to do further study and show this video to other people where it
makes sense so that we can study and find out why this happened,” said Dr. Frank Byrne, president of St. Mary’s Hospital, which is funding
the distribution of the video. “We need to make sure that we institutionalize it, if you will, hard-wire the things that we’ve done to lower infant
mortality and also share with other communities around the state and the country what we’ve done so that they can lower infant mortality as
well.”
Department. She and other African American health professionals began to engage the African American community on health issues.
“Some of the ways that we do that is we are a part of the community,” Barnett-Bridges said. “We go to the same churches in the African
American community. We are involved in the same sports. We’re involved in schools that the same people who we are wanting to help go to.
That’s one of the ways to actually get the community focused on health care. You need to have a relationship with the community. Some of us,
because of our jobs, have a close relationship with the community. How we get health care straightened out? I think it is change over time.
But not necessarily the health care itself. The African American community has a different idea in how to use the services. They’ve been
educated in a way to say ‘These are some of the things we need to do for a healthy child.’ Then they leave from the hospital, clinic or whatever
and they go and tell their friends and family ‘You need to do such and such if you want the baby to be healthy.’ So the education comes from
not just the health care itself, but the community going back to the community saying ‘These are the things that are very helpful.’ That’s the part
that is most important. I don’t think it is the health care itself. I think it’s the community buying into healthy families and healthy children and
then going back and educating the rest of the community about the importance of doing that.”
Betty Banks was there at the beginning of the Harambee Center collaboration when it started in the old Knights of Columbus building on
Hughes Street. The collaboration allowed the health professional community and the African American community to come together for the
care of the parents and children. “We built relationships,” Banks emphasized. “We provided education about health care. We helped people
understand the importance of taking control of their own health care and the health care of their children. We provided ways for parents and
others to be able to interact with decision-makers, interact with health care providers and social service workers. And we provided a place
at the table for the community.”
For Doris Franklin, another nurse with the Dane County-Madison Health Department, over the course of many years, empowering African
American parents has made a difference. “I am a public servant,” Franklin emphasized. “And I always thank my clients for letting me serve
them so I can go as far as they need to go. On the day that I see them, they may not want any information from me. The next day they see me,
they are just ready to open like a book and I can just pour information into them. I want to meet them wherever they are.”
For Krystyn Jones, having her mother and father, Andrea and Max, feeling empowered over healthcare issues was the difference between life
and death. Max, who had been very involved in Andrea’s pregnancy back in 2000, woke up after a bad dream and told Andrea he felt that
something was wrong. They went to their doctor and said they wanted an ultrasound performed. Thinking that they were just trying to
determine the sex of the baby, the doctor said no. Max persisted and when told he would have to pay for the ultrasound, he said go ahead and
do it.
The ultrasound showed that Krystyn had spins bifida. The Jones changed doctors to Dr. Davidson at St. Mary’s Hospital who had a
specialty in the area. “If we hadn’t gotten this ultrasound, either my child would have come out worse than what the results would be or she
would have been dead,” Andrea Jones said. “Dr. Davidson scheduled a C-section so that I wouldn’t push her out vaginally because of the
spina bifida. We delivered her and she lived. She spent almost 10 weeks at St. Mary’s. The St. Mary’s staff was phenomenal. Dr. Davidson
was phenomenal. Dr. Davidson’s staff called her the mystery baby because they didn’t know what was going on with her. When she came out,
she ended up with meningitis on top of the spina bifida. Now here she is today almost nine years later.”
A video has been created by the health department called “Place Matters: The Decline in Infant Mortality in Dane County” that depicts the
Dane County phenomenon and tries to explain how it happened. “We have to do further study and show this video to other people where it
makes sense so that we can study and find out why this happened,” said Dr. Frank Byrne, president of St. Mary’s Hospital, which is funding
the distribution of the video. “We need to make sure that we institutionalize it, if you will, hard-wire the things that we’ve done to lower infant
mortality and also share with other communities around the state and the country what we’ve done so that they can lower infant mortality as
well.”
| Clockwise from upper left: Hershey Barnett-Bridges (l-r), Betty Banks and Lucretia Sullivan-Wade; Dr. Tom Schlenker (l) and Dr. Frank Byrne; Robin Murphy (l-r), Doris Franklin and Nina Woods; The Jones Family: Andrea (l-r), Max, Krystyn and Kaylahn. |
By Jonathan Gramling
Part 2 of 2
important has happened in Madison and Dane County for which the Centers for Disease
Control (CDC) has taken notice. In its May 29, 2009 edition of the Morbidity and Mortality
Weekly Report, the CDC proclaimed in its headline “Apparent Disappearance of the Black-
White Infant Mortality Gap - Dane County, Wisconsin, 1990 – 2007.” Unlike the rest of the
state and indeed most of the country, the gap between African American and Euro-American
infant deaths had disappeared.
A coalition of health care providers, community members and public officials have
come together to determine what was behind this phenomenon so that the community could
continue the trend.
The Madison-Dane County area has a plethora of health-related resources staffed by
caring people who work hard on behalf of the community and are willing to go anywhere,
anytime to provide the best care possible. Yet, there are many other areas of the country
with similar resources and caring health professionals that have not seen the gap close in
terms of infant mortality.
What may have been some of the major factors contributing to this phenomenon was
the health activism occurring in the 1990s and the high level of collaboration that non-profits
and healthcare providers undertook through initiatives like the South Madison Health and
Family Center – Harambee.
Part 2 of 2
important has happened in Madison and Dane County for which the Centers for Disease
Control (CDC) has taken notice. In its May 29, 2009 edition of the Morbidity and Mortality
Weekly Report, the CDC proclaimed in its headline “Apparent Disappearance of the Black-
White Infant Mortality Gap - Dane County, Wisconsin, 1990 – 2007.” Unlike the rest of the
state and indeed most of the country, the gap between African American and Euro-American
infant deaths had disappeared.
A coalition of health care providers, community members and public officials have
come together to determine what was behind this phenomenon so that the community could
continue the trend.
The Madison-Dane County area has a plethora of health-related resources staffed by
caring people who work hard on behalf of the community and are willing to go anywhere,
anytime to provide the best care possible. Yet, there are many other areas of the country
with similar resources and caring health professionals that have not seen the gap close in
terms of infant mortality.
What may have been some of the major factors contributing to this phenomenon was
the health activism occurring in the 1990s and the high level of collaboration that non-profits
and healthcare providers undertook through initiatives like the South Madison Health and
Family Center – Harambee.
