Campaign for Healthier Babies

A heartfelt THANK YOU! goes out to all the knitters and crochet-ers who contributed to our Heads Up Campaign. We have been overwhelmed by the phenomenal response - nearly 900 hats have been received to date. We will be displaying the hats through December in The Rotunda at Orlando City Hall and then distributing them to local NICU's and needy central Florida families. THANK YOU again.(November 22, 2009)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HEADS UP ON INFANT MORTALITY

Please Help Us Knit or Crochet a Hat Today to raise awareness about Infant Mortality!

• Make a donation on our campaign page - your support helps us to provide prenatal care,and classes on healthy pregnancy and parenting to at-risk mothers
• We'll post your ‘healthy baby’ pictures on the Commonsense Childbirth site in our ongoing slideshow
• Send your comments, solutions, successes to campaign@commonsensechildbirth.org
• Talk to people you know about our Campaign for Healthier Babies
• Identify and share ‘who’s who’ in your community
• Become a Campaign ambassador in your area
• Attend one of our training workshops, seminars, or conferences
• Invite Jennie Joseph to speak at your event

Email campaign@commonsensechildbirth.org if you wish to join the Campaign for Healthier Babies. THANKS!

September is National Infant Mortality Month. Infant Mortality is the death of a live-born baby within the first year of life. During this time of recognition, our goal is to continue to educate mothers, fathers, family members, community leaders and our public about the shocking number of infant deaths being experienced by families in The United States, and how they can be reduced. "Simply put, our babies are dying! People just don’t realize the impact of infant mortality in our communities and so we have launched our Campaign for Healthier Babies," states Jennie Joseph, midwife, Executive Director of Commonsense Childbirth Inc. and the founder of The JJ Way® maternity health care system.

The United States is 41st in a ranking of 222 countries according to the CIA World Fact Book 2008¹. Nationally, around 6 of every 1000 babies born will die before their first birthday. Many are lost within the first month of life. The leading causes of death are prematurity (being born too soon), low birth weight (being born too small), congenital birth defects, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS or crib death) and injuries.