D.C. Turns to Midwives to Cut Infant Deaths

WASHINGTON —  Faced with an infant mortality rate more than twice the national average, District of Columbia officials are turning to certified nurse midwives to save lives.

Mayor Anthony Williams and other city leaders will help dedicate a facility Monday that could offer prenatal care at 40% to 60% less cost than current Medicaid rates. The city is contributing $785,000 to help establish the birthing center, but the effort is headed by a women’s health advocate from New York.

“Prenatal care is in a state of some confusion in the district, and this is a novel approach,” said Richard Monteilh, the director of the district’s Department of Housing and Community Development.

Ruth Lubic, who co-founded the Childbearing Center in the Morris Heights section of New York City’s South Bronx in 1988, has spent the last five years working to gain support and raise money for a similar facility in the nation’s capital.

“They have the worst infant outcomes in the country and the Congress is here,” she said.

Following a nearly $1.5-million renovation, a long-vacant supermarket will house not only a birthing center but also a well-baby clinic and a child care facility. Job training and substance abuse services for women also will also be offered.

“It’s good for the neighborhood,” said Bernard Richardson, the district’s neighborhood commissioner for the area. “We have a lot of young teenagers having kids who need the care.”

The District of Columbia’s infant mortality rate is 14.9 per 1,000 live births, the worst in the nation. According to figures released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count survey, more than 14% of the babies born in the district have low birth-weights.

Lubic said other organizations are working to establish similar family service operations in Atlanta, Nashville and Chicago. The D.C. Developing Families Center will begin offering prenatal care through an agreement with Howard University Hospital by September.