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The Crawford County Public Health Help Me Grow Division is inviting all families to join us for a Baby Parade on September 26 at 11 a.m. We want all the “Mums” to bring their little “Pumpkins” to take a stroll with us to celebrate our babies and encourage healthy families and healthy pregnancies. We will meet at the Bucyrus City Fountain at the Square (corner of Sandusky and Mansfield Streets, downtown Bucyrus). There will be free fun for all ages with face painting, balloons and Goody Bags.

September is Infant Mortality Awareness Month. The Help Me Grow Division of Crawford County Public Health is encouraging families to bring awareness and support to local efforts to improve the infant mortality rates in Ohio.

“We are making progress, but we must do more to ensure the safety of our communities’ babies,” said Pam Kalb, Crawford County Help Me Grow Contract Manager. “Addressing pre-natal care with women to help prevent premature deliveries and ensuring our little ones have a safe place to sleep are just two of the ways we can improve our infant mortality rates.”

The latest data released by the Ohio Department of Health reports 1,024 infants in Ohio died before their 1st Birthday in 2013. Even though that number is an improvement compared to 1,047 deaths in 2012, Ohio still remains 23 percent higher than the national average. Locally we had 3 deaths in 2013 out of 453 babies born that year in Crawford County.

Infant mortality is defined as the death of a live-born baby before his or her first birthday. The three leading causes of infant deaths in Ohio are prematurity/pre-term births (pre-term births are those before 37 weeks gestation) which accounts for 46.7 percent of all infant deaths, sleep-related deaths (including Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)) which accounts for 16.2 percent of infant deaths and babies born with serious birth defects which accounts for 14.5 percent of all infant deaths.

We look forward to celebrating healthy families in Crawford County. For more information, contact the Help Me Grow Division at (419) 562-4667.