Thursday, Sep. 24, 2009
Amy C. Rippel
Special to the Sentinel
September 24, 2009
CLERMONT - They're crafted with love and made to fit the tiniest of heads. Hundreds of pint-sized hats from around the world are pouring into a prenatal-care clinic in an effort to bring attention to infant death.
And when all the work is done, the hope is to have a dramatic and moving exhibit — hundreds of hats piled high at the Central Florida Kidfest & Family Expo on Saturday in Clermont — with the goal of bringing attention to infant mortality.
The idea came to midwife Jennie Joseph weeks ago as she became aware of a startling statistic. In 2007, 1,689 babies in Florida died before reaching their first birthday. She said that shouldn't be happening with proper prenatal care. Yet it does.
DID YOU KNOW...
That in Florida in 2007 there were 1687 babies who did not make it to their first birthday?
That Infant Mortality is most often caused by babies being born too soon, too small or too sick to survive?
WE NEED YOUR HELP
Our Goal: 1687 baby hats, one for each child lost, by September 1, 2009
Please send your hat(s) to The Birth Place, 1130 E. Plant St. Winter Garden, Fl. 34787
KNIT or CROCHET your hat today!
ORLANDO Her reasons for being tremendously involved with two local benevolent organizations while trying to balance a career and mentor her 19 year-old daughter are quite simple: intuition and common sense.
It was Fifth Third Bank Orlando Magic Maker Monica May's intuition that led her to become extensively involved with the programs Common Sense Childbirth Inc., and Consider Your Image, a non-profit organization she founded herself. And it's common sense that drives her today.
"I know there is a simple way to life," explains May. "If there is an opportunity to help put together a road map for young people, I want to be a part of that."
From tampabay.com. In Print: Monday, February 23, 2009.
WINTER GARDEN — This Central Florida office feels more like a home than a maternity ward, with portraits of glowing mothers-to-be proudly displayed on the walls leading to the "suites." The Van Gogh room has a nighttime feel, with a dark blue couch near a star-designed quilted bed and the Starry Night painting hanging above.
And then there is the birthing stool oddly found in the mix, looking more like a misplaced item in a bedroom.
It is the vision of Jennie Joseph, an energetic midwife originally from England who has run this birthing center since 1994.
Her waiting room is filled with expectant parents, but times are still tough for her and many of Florida's approximately 110 midwives.
2009 is off to a great start and I am writing to personally wish you all the very best for this upcoming year. I am excited to announce the launch of my Campaign for Healthier Babies and to invite you to come sail the high seas with us in October - yes, we are going on a CRUISE to The Bahamas! This will be our first annual 'fun'draising cruise and I am looking forward to some much needed down time with my family and yours. Come hang out with us, bring your friends, co-workers and relatives and let's have some fun!
Imagine this - cruising can help us raise funds for Commonsense Childbirth, our non-profit program, which provides prenatal care, education and support for uninsured and low income women at The Birth Place. We maintain an 'open door' policy at our Easy Access clinics - no woman will be turned away if she needs help with her pregnancy. More and more women are struggling to find a way to pay for maternity care or are having trouble securing Medicaid. We often see women who are more than 30 weeks advanced in their pregnancy, still waiting for their application to go through and unable to find a practitioner to help them.
We also set up Easy Access Clinics in Sanford, Orange City and Daytona last year. Our motto is ''every woman wants a healthy baby and every woman deserves one" the need is great and it is getting worse. We know our program is making a difference - of 245 women who attended our Easy Access clinic at The Birth Place in 2008 only 2% had a premature baby. The average for Orange County is 15% and is even higher for African American women. They say it costs around $37,000 - $50,000 in medical care per preterm baby; this means that we saved the State more than $1 million by helping the other 13% carry their babies to full term. (If you've ever been a patient, you know how hard we work to make sure you can reach us around the clock if you need help).
Our recent study proved that my midwifery model, The JJ Way™, is making an impact - I like my babies cute and chunky! Your financial support enables us to continue to offer prenatal care and classes to the most vulnerable women and babies in our community. There are many ways to help us please check the Campaign page. Thank you for caring!
Call Kaevon at 407 654 9900 or e-mail her at worldtravelst@aol.com - $50 deposit is due by Februaury 1st to secure your spot. Check out the attachments for more details. See you soon...
Jennie
By Eugene Declercq and Judy Norsigian | November 17, 2008 BOSTON GLOBE
PRESIDENT-ELECT Obama's healthcare reform proposals have focused intensely on two key questions: How much would reform cost and how many people would be covered? He also must address the critical issue of why the United States has such poor health outcomes despite all the money we spend.
A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention documents a slight decline in the national infant mortality rate (the number of deaths to babies under 1 year of age) in 2006, but the rate has essentially remained flat since 2000, leaving the United States 29th among industrialized countries.
ORLANDO, FL. September 17, 2008 - September is National Infant Mortality Month but Florida
midwife Jennie Joseph‟s fight to provide quality prenatal care to all expecting mothers and reduce
Central Florida‟s high infant mortality rate, is a year-round campaign.
"Simply put, our babies are dying! People just don't realize the impact of infant mortality in our
communities and so we have launched our Campaign for Healthier Babies," states Jennie Joseph, midwife, Executive Director of Commonsense Childbirth Inc. and the founder of The JJ Way™ Maternity Health Care System. The campaign is designed to educate the public, community leaders, elected officials and increase awareness of the need to reduce infant mortality.
National agencies such as Healthy Start, March of Dimes and now Rotary International have led the
charge by stressing the need to address this serious issue and eradicate the scourge of poor infant
health from our communities.
Joseph, a nationally-recognized midwife and leading authority on preventing infant mortality, has
developed an innovative model for prenatal care, the "The JJ Way™", that has successfully
demonstrated reduced levels of infant mortality. Joseph also operates The Birth Place, a multi-site
birthing center and women's health clinic in Winter Garden, FL. Her compassion and commitment
continues to bring needed attention to one of Central Florida's saddest and most preventable medical concerns – the high death rate among Black and Hispanic newborns and babies under the age of one.
Baby Death Public Health Crisis Thwarted by Poverty
By CRAIG LEAKE and DAVID APPLEBY
There are places in America where the unthinkable is happening: Thousands of babies are dying.
The costs associated with saving a premature infant can be staggering.
Of the 23 richest countries, the United States has the highest rate of infant mortality, according to the CIA World Fact Book. And in Shelby County, Tenn., which encompasses Memphis, the state health department says a baby dies every 43 hours -- a rate higher than that of any other major city. The babies most at risk come from impoverished parts of town with largely black populations.
read the full article at ABCnews.com
Gabrielle Finley | Sentinel Staff Writer | April 23, 2008
Read the original article at the Orlando Sentinel
Programs help at-risk moms-to-be, to give children a better chance.
SANFORD - Shanette Lee thought hope was around the corner.
Her life had not been easy. Brushes with the law landed her in prison for a few years.
Then a relationship in New Jersey went sour, causing Lee, 29 and three months pregnant, to head to relatives in Sanford. But things got worse, and Lee ended up at a homeless shelter, rationing the prenatal vitamins she got back in New Jersey.
"There were times where I didn't know if I was going to get anything to eat," Lee said.
She was afraid her baby would die.
She was also a walking statistic for black infant mortality.
The death rate for Seminole County's black babies is off the charts -- seven times that of white babies, said midwife Jennie Joseph."This is outrageous, and these statistics can't stand," Joseph said.
by Robyn Shelton - Sentinel Medical Writer
Medical clinics that serve the poor in Florida are being overwhelmed by illegal immigrants and other uninsured women needing prenatal services, creating a looming crisis that already has forced at least one health department to close its doors to pregnant patients.
Two groups that serve the poor in Orange County say they are booked to capacity for prenatal services, with women waiting up to five weeks to get an initial appointment at the busiest locations.
That's the good news.
Mark S. Williams worries that local women may not get care in the future because providers do not have the staff, money or ability to meet the rising need. In Orange County, the number of women seeking prenatal services from these groups has climbed 65 percent since 2002.
"We are at our limit; we have to begin to look at how we can just maintain what we have or reduce the number of patients that we see for prenatal care," said Williams, chief executive officer of Community Health Centers Inc. "If the growth in the region continues -- and we have no reason to believe that it won't -- there will be patients who just aren't going to be seen."
