Recent reporting on Syracuse’s Black infant mortality rate is heartbreaking, but it is not surprising.
From 2022 to 2024, Syracuse’s Black infant mortality rate reached 14 deaths per 1,000 births. That number represents lost lives, grieving families, and a system that continues to fail Black parents and babies. For those of us working closely with families every day, these outcomes reflect longstanding, deeply rooted inequities that require urgent and sustained action.
At REACH CNY, addressing racial disparities in birth outcomes is not new work. It is the reason we exist.
Infant mortality is not driven by chance, and it is not the result of individual choices alone. It is shaped by access to care, economic stability, housing safety, food security, transportation, chronic stress, and racism embedded within systems meant to protect health.
When families face barriers to prenatal care, struggle to meet basic needs, or lack trusted support during pregnancy and early childhood, outcomes suffer. The data now confirms what families and community providers have said for years: progress requires addressing root causes, not just symptoms.
REACH CNY works alongside families during the most critical stages of life through programs designed to provide consistent, culturally responsive, and practical support.
Community Health Workers (CHWs) play a vital role by building trusted relationships with families. They help expectant and new parents navigate healthcare systems, connect to social services, and overcome barriers such as transportation challenges, housing instability, or lack of access to nutrition and prenatal care. Their work is rooted in trust, lived experience, and sustained engagement.
Early Head Start supports pregnant people, infants, and young children by strengthening parent-child relationships and promoting healthy development from the very beginning. These programs connect families to essential resources, offer developmental and parenting support, and help ensure that children get the strongest possible start during their earliest years.
Together, these approaches recognize a simple truth: healthy babies require healthy, supported families.
Reaching women earlier in pregnancy matters, but timing alone does not save lives. Families need coordinated, community-based support that begins before pregnancy and continues well after birth. That support must be accessible, trusted, and rooted in the realities families face every day.
Solutions must go beyond clinical care to include housing stability, food access, economic support, and culturally responsive services that reduce stress and promote long-term wellbeing.
Black infant mortality should never be an “outlier” in our community health data. It should be a shared responsibility and a call to action for systems, funders, policymakers, and community partners alike.
This moment demands urgency, accountability, and deeper investment in proven, locally rooted programs that work. Our babies’ lives depend on it, and our community’s future does too.
Reducing Black infant mortality requires sustained, community-led action. You can help by supporting proven programs like Community Health Workers and Early Head Start, partnering with REACH CNY to strengthen coordinated care, and investing in solutions that address the social factors affecting families before, during, and after pregnancy. Staying informed, sharing this work, and advocating for equity helps keep this issue visible and urgent.
