New collaboration takes aim at infant mortality in Nashville

By: Holly Fletcher

The Metro Public Health Department, Tennessee State University and NashvilleHealth are putting together a collaboration to decrease the rates of infant mortality and preterm births in Davidson County.

The collaboration is going to look at a variety of ways to impact the health of women before pregnancy and during pregnancy and education about how to have healthy babies. Davidson County had eight infant deaths per 1,000 live births, according to 2016 County Health Rankings data from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Metro Health Department analyzed births by neighborhoods for the first time in 2015 and found disparities in the health of babies born in neighborhoods across the city. The health department received a 12-month grant from CityMatCH, an association of maternal and child health leaders from city and county health departments, to look at how to develop a framework to improve the health of babies.

Read the rest of the article on The Tennessean.