CRENSHAW : A Prenatal Program That Is Growing Up

A new infant follow-up care project takes Great Beginnings for Black Babies’ prenatal educational programs a logical step further.

Thanks to a windfall of county health department funds, the Crenshaw-based nonprofit agency has implemented a childhood immunization and infant services program.

The program, slated to run through June 30, offers free immunizations at Great Beginnings’ center in the Hawthorne Mall, as well as referrals to other services such as child care and nutrition counseling. Program participants receive such incentives as car seats, baby furniture and strollers at monthly “healthy babies” celebrations.

Great Beginnings spokeswoman Jeanne Taylor said that the project is a much-needed addition to a program that has largely focused on boosting prenatal care among black parents to lower the black infant mortality rate.

“The most we follow infants is six weeks, which is really nothing,” Taylor said. “We still get resistance among parents to going back to the doctor after the baby is born.”

Program coordinator and registered nurse Clara Love said she and her small staff are recruiting parents, particularly mothers, wherever they can: in beauty shops, at grocery stores, in malls and churches.

Love and a contingent of three public health nurses pound the pavement in South-Central Los Angeles, Crenshaw, Inglewood, Lynwood, Lawndale, Compton and Hawthorne--with notable results. With six weeks to go, the program has nearly reached its goal of 100 clients.

Love said she hopes the project will be extended so that she can continue to educate black parents on the importance--and wide availability--of infant care services.

“Parents who don’t have insurance think they can’t afford follow-up care, and those who work may think they don’t have the time,” Love said. “But there are a lot of options out there. If we can continue to keep parents in a healthy mode, it’ll make a difference.”

Launched in 1990 out of an upstairs office in the old Crenshaw Square shopping center at 3860 Crenshaw Blvd., Great Beginnings for Black Babies has conducted ad campaigns and operated prenatal programs aimed at lowering the county’s black infant mortality rate.

In its five years, the program has seen an encouraging decline in the rate, from 21.1 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1988 to 14.3 deaths in 1993. But, Taylor points out, it is still alarmingly higher than the mortality rate for white babies, which is 7.7 per 1,000 births.

Though Great Beginnings has expanded its services and now operates prenatal programs out of Inglewood’s Daniel Freeman Hospital and the Hawthorne Mall, Taylor says there is still much to be done.

Infectious childhood diseases such as tuberculosis and measles are on the rise, while a shaky economy has translated into shrinking government budgets for social and health programs. Great Beginnings is funded by the state and county Department of Health Services, the J.W.C.H. Institute and the March of Dimes.

Love said she and other Great Beginnings workers will nonetheless hold to a commitment of bettering the lives of black children. Maintaining contact with clients difficult to reach by phone has frequently meant paying parents a visit. The tone of the program, she said, is upbeat and congratulatory--not admonishing--so that parents will feel motivated to do the right things.

“The first thing we do is congratulate parents for having their babies, then we congratulate them for coming back and keeping up the good work,” Love said. “We compliment them, tell them they’re doing a good job. And they believe it.”

Information: (213) 295-9993.