100 Milwaukee babies die before their first birthday. Health, faith leaders gather to discuss why.

Too many babies in Milwaukee don't live to their first birthdays.

Of the 10,000 babies, on average, born in the city annually, roughly 100 die before celebrating that milestone, according to the state Department of Health Services, the city and Ascension Wisconsin.

That's a dire statistic that Julia Means has been working to change for nearly 20 years.

Means, a community health nurse with Ascension Wisconsin, remembers attending a public health conference in Milwaukee in 2004. She recalls hearing a speaker say that a child born in a third world country had a better chance of reaching its first birthday than a child born in Milwaukee.

"I went home and I couldn't sleep," said Means, who has worked for Ascension since 1986. "African American babies were dying. I knew we had to put a stop to it."

That same year, she started the Blanket of Love program.

Like a blanket swaddles a newborn, the Ascension Wisconsin's Blanket of Love program swaddles the entire family. If the mother is homeless, permanent housing is found for her. If the mother is in an abusive relationship, she is taken to a safe place. If the family needs health care, transportation or is suffering from food insecurity, the Blanket of Love program meets those needs.

The program has grown from having a presence at one Milwaukee congregation to 36 participating "sanctuary" churches and each of Ascension Wisconsin's three Milwaukee hospitals.

It is supported by the Milwaukee Health Department, March of Dimes, and the Milwaukee Lifecourse Initiative for Healthy Families and UW-Milwaukee's Maternal and Child Health Pipeline Training Program.

On Thursday, roughly 100 community members, including Ascension Wisconsin's top executives, Means, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and dozens of members of faith-based congregations, gathered at Story Hill Firehouse on the city's west side, to raise awareness on the most preventable causes of infant death in Milwaukee — premature births and unsafe sleeping environments.

The event also celebrated the 36 churches participating as Ascension Wisconsin's Blanket of Love Sanctuaries in advance of the Strong Baby Sabbath on Sunday. Leaders of churches and faith communities across Milwaukee were encouraged to use the Strong Baby Sabbath to alert congregation members to the infant mortality statistics and to share information on how to help more infants celebrate their first birthdays.

"Churches have to let pregnant women know that there is no judgment," Means said. "We love you and we love that baby."

Means said there was a time not too long ago when many of the deaths were caused by parents co-sleeping with infants.

"Pre-term births are the crux of the problem now," Means said. "That means low-birth weights and not enough moms making it to nine months. That has a lot to do with poverty."

According to the city's 2017 Fetal Infant Mortality Review Report (the most recent available).

• Nearly 56% of Milwaukee’s infant deaths are due mainly to prematurity (when a baby is born more than three weeks early). Infants born prematurely have a greater risk of medical complications, long-term disabilities and death.
• Over 20% of Milwaukee’s infant deaths are due to congenital abnormalities.
• Over 15% of Milwaukee’s infant deaths are attributable to a combination of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy and unsafe sleep environments. 
• The stillbirth and infant mortality rates were two to three times higher among non-Hispanic Blacks than non-Hispanic Whites and Hispanics.

Brenda Hoskins, the program's social worker, said many of the women she helps are homeless or couch-surfing. Hoskins said she is often providing car seats and pack-and-plays to the mothers. Trauma is also an issue.

"Domestic violence is a huge problem," Hoskins said, adding she helps women, many of whom have several children, find shelter at Sojourner Family Peace Center.

Rosa Ceballos, a community health navigator with Ascension Wisconsin, works with Spanish-speaking expectant mothers on Milwaukee's south side. She said their needs go beyond finding and communicating with a doctor.

"They are from different countries. They don't know how to navigate in the community," Ceballos said.

Outreach to this population began virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Blanket of Love program now meets in-person once a month and virtually other weeks at Ascension St. Francis. The hospital did close its labor and delivery unit at the end of 2022, a decision that drew outcry from residents in the area and Milwaukee's elected officials, but Ascension Columbia St. Mary's and Ascension Southeast Wisconsin Hospital − St. Joseph Campus have labor and delivery units.

Milwaukee resident Angela Stinson volunteers with Blankets of Love through her congregation, St. Matthew Christian Methodist on North 9th Street. St. Matthew is among the churches participating in Sunday's Strong Baby Sabbath event.

A retired school teacher and veteran, Stinson works with expectant mothers and families in a number of ways. On Wednesday night, she hosted a Zoom meeting with four mothers. She always opens with a prayer and then reads a Bible scripture. Two of the mothers have been meeting with her since before they gave birth seven years ago.

When the babies turn 1 year old, Stinson said she does not cut-off contact. "As you work with the families and the children, you develop close relationships with them, like a family," she said.

Stinson said she has grown close to one mother in particular. The woman asked if she could call Stinson "Auntie." As their relationship continued to grow, she started to call her "Auntie-mom."

"Then one time she just asked me if she could call me mom. I said sure," Stinson said. "It was touching. It brought tears to my eyes."

For more information on Ascension Wisconsin's Blanket of Love program, email communityservices@ascension.org or call 414-465-4587

Jessica Van Egeren is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's enterprise health reporter. She can be reached at jvanegeren@gannett.com.