Northern Indiana Hispanic Health Coalition to host event addressing infant mortality in Elkhart County

ELKHART COUNTY, Ind. -- The Northern Indiana Hispanic Health Coalition is shining a spotlight on a critical issue Elkhart County face: infant mortality.

Elkhart County ranks among the top five counties in Indiana for Hispanic infant mortality.

In 2023 alone, more than 500 Hoosier babies didn’t make it to their first birthday, roughly ten infants every week.

"We want to organize this symposium next Friday about infant mortality because the statistics that the Indiana Health Department reported are very concerning to us. It's so disheartening to see that here in this zip code, 46514, in the city of Elkhart, it's at a rate of 10," Executive Director of Northern Indiana Hispanic Health Coalition Liliana Quintero said.

Quintero is leading a community effort to change that. She says too many Hispanic women face major barriers, starting with prenatal care.

40 percent of Hispanic births in Indiana are to women who didn’t receive first-trimester prenatal care.

Other issues include a language barrier and discrimination.

Quintero says these play a role when expecting mothers don’t understand their doctors or feel unwelcome and are less likely to return for follow-up care.

"We can raise the accessibility of prenatal care. We can increase education to our community on safe sleep. We need to mention more and more to mothers what the techniques that babies need to sleep in their crib are. All that education can help the mom understand and prevent the increase in the rate of infant mortality in our community," Quintero said.

Friday's symposium will feature expert speakers, including Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Lindsay Weaver, and public health leaders from across the region.

Quintero says the goal is to shift infant mortality to infant vitality.

"Infant mortality is one of those worldwide measurements that demonstrate how healthy a region, a city, a county and a zip code are. And therefore, it is everyone's responsibility to act. If we see infant mortality in the Hispanic community, that also means it's affecting the African American community and other communities. This is why I hope that on June 13th, we all leave with the understanding of, 'What can I do for these numbers to change?'" Quintero said.

Doors open at 8:30 a.m. Friday morning at Elkhart Health and Aquatics. Registration is free.