The infant mortality rate in Guilford County is one of the highest in North Carolina. For several decades, Guilford County’s infant mortality rates, and other leading causes of infant death, including late or no prenatal care, preterm birth, and low birthweight rates remain higher than the state and national rates, with glaring racial disparities. These rates and racial disparities have had minimal fluctuation over the many years of efforts to address the issue that did not explicitly address the racial inequities.

When looking at health outcomes across all races/ethnicities it becomes clear that Black birthing people and their babies are doing disproportionately worse than White birthing people and their babies in all 4 health outcomes. Overall, Black birthing people and babies are the worst off in 3 of 4 health outcomes. Hispanic individuals have the highest rate of late or no prenatal care.

Unsurprisingly, Black babies also make up the largest proportion of infant deaths in the county. However, it is alarming how large that proportion is of the total infant deaths. In 2022, Black babies made up 39% of births in Guilford County and 52% of infant deaths.

We are leading a movement, with community-centered solutions, to eliminate racial disparities in infant mortality in Guilford County. We believe it is not enough to just reduce disparity rates, but that our African American families deserve this movement to set audacious goals to eliminate the immense inequities. We seek to advance health equity by tackling structural racism, and improving healthcare access and the quality of the continuum of care in maternal and infant health. We are facilitating a community-centered collective action approach that amplifies the lived experiences of our most marginalized communities, with an explicit focus on Black communities, to co-design collaborative solutions.

Community Driven Process

Eliminating racial disparities requires a radically inclusive community-driven process.  Every Baby Guilford, along with over 100 community partners, are addressing these disparities with purposeful action teams that will:

• Address systemic racism and implicit bias within the continuum of care for maternal and infant health
• Develop institutional policies to address structural racism
• Promote and implement racial equity and implicit bias training in maternal health settings
• Implement race equity organizational assessments in maternal health settings
• Ensure shared outcomes from Every Baby Guilford community partners

There needs to be clear efforts focused on eliminating racial disparities, as this will bring down Guilford County’s overall infant mortality rate and lead to better outcomes for women and babies overall.

Pillar One

Guilford County on the whole has high infant mortality rates compared with state and national rates. this infant mortality rate has not changed much in the last 30 years.

Pillar Two

Black birthing people and their babies have had disproportionately worse infant and maternal health outcomes for the last 30 years. Their high infant mortality rate raises Guilford County’s overall rate.

Pillar Three

Our country’s legal, social, and healthcare institutions’ treatment of Black individuals allows Black birthing people and their babies to experience worse maternal and infant outcomes.

Supportive Programs for Families

Guilford County is rich with support programs for expectant families and new parents.  Every Baby Guilford is creating awareness of the issues surrounding infant deaths in Guilford County and promoting the programs that provide important support to families through education and training. We do this through the following efforts:

• Implementation of a Fetal Infant Mortality Review (FIMR)
• Quarterly convening maternal health partners to provide education and training to professionals on topics related to infant mortality.
• Strengthen partnerships to ensure no gaps or overlaps exist within maternal health programs serving Guilford County.
• Amplify evidence-based programs impacting infant mortality in Guilford County like the CenteringPregnancy® model and community Doula programs.