Gabrielle Finley | Sentinel Staff Writer | April 23, 2008
Read the original article at the Orlando Sentinel
Programs help at-risk moms-to-be, to give children a better chance.
SANFORD - Shanette Lee thought hope was around the corner.
Her life had not been easy. Brushes with the law landed her in prison for a few years.
Then a relationship in New Jersey went sour, causing Lee, 29 and three months pregnant, to head to relatives in Sanford. But things got worse, and Lee ended up at a homeless shelter, rationing the prenatal vitamins she got back in New Jersey.
"There were times where I didn't know if I was going to get anything to eat," Lee said.
She was afraid her baby would die.
She was also a walking statistic for black infant mortality.
The death rate for Seminole County's black babies is off the charts -- seven times that of white babies, said midwife Jennie Joseph."This is outrageous, and these statistics can't stand," Joseph said.