Billboard’s Message Is Graphically Anti-Drug : Advertising: Drawing shows newborn on life-support systems and warns mothers against substance abuse. Campaign is part of county education effort.

Along a busy stretch of Crenshaw Boulevard, where billboards are usually plastered with advertisements for liquor and cigarettes, one stands out--a massive drawing of a newborn boy with life-support tubes connected to his tiny neck and nostrils, struggling to survive.

“He couldn’t take the hit,” the caption reads. “If you’re pregnant don’t take drugs.”

The billboard is a graphic warning to women who take a “hit” of crack cocaine from a pipe during pregnancy. Their “crack babies” will enter life with cruel illnesses, often facing retardation and lifetime disabilities. Many of the children will die before their first birthday.

Passersby have reacted with a variety of emotions to the billboard, which is part of a media campaign entitled “Great Beginnings for Black Babies,” organized by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services to educate pregnant women about the dangerous effects drug and alcohol use have on their unborn children.

Stephanie Mills, a 27-year-old legal assistant, said she was angered by the image of the helpless, suffering child.

“I’m pregnant and I find it hard to believe that anyone would do something like that to their child,” she said. “How could a mother hurt her baby by taking drugs?”

The advertising campaign was designed by the International Communications and Advertising Network. It will include scores of billboards, signs on buses and radio announcements aimed particularly at African-American communities, where the infant mortality rate is more than double the county average.

“When a pregnant woman takes a hit of a crack pipe, the baby takes a hit also,” said network president Ken Wilson. “We are hoping to drive home the message that you shouldn’t take drugs and alcohol if you are pregnant.

“I wanted to create a billboard that is so shocking that when a person sees it they have to stop and it forces them to think and act,” he said.

On Friday, the billboard seemed to be working. Latasha Jones was just stepping off a bus and was walking home when she saw the image.

“It is painful to look at,” she said. “I used to work in a hospital and I don’t like this. The baby looks like he is under stress. It is a painful message.”

Virginia Hunter, a professor of nursing at Cal State Los Angeles, helped organize the campaign when she and other health professionals became disturbed by the increasing infant mortality rate among blacks--a problem that has been blamed on many factors, including poverty, stress, drug and alcohol abuse.

Hunter said the infant mortality rate among blacks increased from 16.3 to 21.1 per 1,000 babies from 1987 to 1988, the latest period where figures were available. This compares to a countywide rate which increased from 8.2 to 9.6 per 1,000 infants countywide.

“This is an urgent problem,” Hunter said. “Black babies are dying at an alarming rate.”

While targeting African-American audiences, the message emphasizing the need for early prenatal care is a universal one, Hunter said. “Babies simply cannot survive when their mothers abuse drugs and alcohol.”

So far, the campaign has been short of funds but has managed to stay afloat with the help of some state funds, volunteers and discounts on advertising rates by billboard owners.

At the busy Crenshaw intersection on Friday, Dorothy Richard, an adult education teacher, noticed the sign and offered a word of caution to the campaign organizers. It takes more than a billboard, she said, to stop people from using crack cocaine.

“It is easy for people to stop taking drugs and get help. Let’s hope it is not just lip service,” she said. “Often what happens when someone who has a problem goes to get help, they find that there are no programs available for them.”

The county’s prenatal help line is (213) 250-8055.