The First College to Community Outreach Week hosted by the U.S. Office of Minority Health (OMH) and Shelby County Government ended with a community baby shower and health fair on May 23 at World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church in Hickory Hill.

Man-to-Man-to-Man

Movie producer Spike Lee, former University of Memphis standout and NBA guard Elliott Perry, and former NFL player and University of Memphis alum Reggie Howard discussed the role of African-American men relative to the health and well-being of the African-American community and family life during an honest – and at times raw – exchange at the Men’s Forum held as part of the Community Baby Shower and Health Fair at World Overcomers Outreaching Ministries Church on Sunday (May 23). The event culminated the First College to Community Outreach Weeks.

Spike Lee: “When I see a kid with his pants way below is ass, (I say) ‘Come here, we have a black president.’ Values are turned around. We must see this as happening to our kids and not someone else.

Reggie Howard: “Me being a father myself and not having my father in my life can affect me being a father to my own children. . . If you are having a problem with your wife or your girlfriend, and you have a child with that person, try to fix if you can. Or stay in that child’s life.”

Elliott Perry: “We have a litany of problems but we have the answers. We’ve got to keep the momentum going. We have to be that voice for the kids. Infant mortality is real. It happens.”

Some 40 health and community organizations set up exhibits in the WOOMC Family Life Center providing advice, demonstrations, handouts, and lots of giveaways from baby lotion to breast pumps.

Along the way were special segments and guest speakers that included Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton Jr., author and national infant mortality prevention spokesperson Tonya Lewis Lee, rapping dentist Yo Doc (Dr. Marrio Thompson), WKNO’s Mr. Chuck, and a 7th-grader Kymberly Dyson of Memphis Academy of Health Sciences.

Trained just last week by HBCU college students in the “A Healthy Baby Begins With You” campaign to be a Preconception Prevention Educator (PPE), Dyson shared her knowledge of infant mortality prevention from the main stage at the health fair.

“They trained us about the ABC’s,” said Dyson, confidently. “Sleep Alone — No small objects. Sleep on their Back — sleeping on the stomach may puts the baby in a situation where they can’t breath. Sleep in a Crib because it’s the safest place for a new baby. A new baby should not sleep in a bed.”

She also emphasized that preconception health care means you must be healthy before you conceive because 50 percent of pregnancies are not planned. Pregnant females need vitamins and folic acid. And, prenatal visits are important to keep up with the baby and to see how the baby is doing, said Dyson.

“We should not be stressed while we are pregnant, because our hormones can impact us and we could lose our child,” she added.

”Diet – we need to eat green, leafy foods and meat, red meat and poultry, to stand against anemia,” Dyson said. “Exercise, like Michelle Obama who exercised while she was pregnant, so we can have a healthy baby and a healthy us — because a healthy baby begins with us.”

The “A Healthy Baby Begins With You” campaign began in May 2007.

At the May 23 event, national campaign spokesperson Tonya Lewis Lee conducted three story times that included giveaways of free autographed books. Accompanied by her son Jackson Lee, who held up a book to show the pictures, she read from “Please, Baby, Please,” which she co-wrote with her Academy Award-nominated husband, Spike Lee. The book, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, rated 4 ˝ stars on Amazon.com.

Lee spent last week in Memphis on behalf of the campaign and shooting a documentary on what’s being done regarding infant mortality in Memphis and Shelby County, which has the highest numbers of infant deaths in the country.

Colondra Tibbs of the Healthy Start Initiative demonstrates Shaken Baby Syndrome at Infant Mortality Awareness event held May 23 at WOOMC. (Photo by Florence M. Howard)

She and her husband started writing children’s books when they looked and saw what was available for African-American children. The mother of two said she wanted to show regular, black children in normal situations – “to create something for them.”

Two Bartlett Elementary students, Jayla Monie and Daja Brown, took part in the first story time and book-signing of the day. “It was funny,” said Brown, about the storybook.

“It was silly,” said six-year-old Monie.

The girls — who were accompanied by their mothers, Melissa Monie and Rosalyn Brown — were impressed when they learned the reader had written the book that had her name on the cover.

Hundreds of people turned out for the community baby shower and family health fair. In addition to those hosting exhibits and providing information, a number of organizations came together to offer comprehensive health screenings for kidney disease, glaucoma, blood pressure, diabetes, body mass index (BMI), sickle cell and HIV/AIDS, including The MED, St. Jude and other local hospitals and the Memphis and Shelby County Health Department. The Red Cross collected blood donations.

Every fall for the past 12 years, the Shelby County Health Department’s WIC Program has hosted its Incredible Baby Shower to promote breastfeeding. This is the first time the event has been part of a national week-long effort involving national health speakers and celebrities.

Kenya Anderson, a lay health advisor with Community Voice, a grassroots infant mortality reduction and prevention program, noted earlier in the week that there is a commonality in the stories of women who have lost their children before the age of one, but every story is different.

The mother of two lost a baby on March 3, 2005. “It’s rewarding to see the number of organizations and people working on the problem,” said Anderson.

Students from Lane College, Fisk-Meharry and LeMoyne-Owen were Tennessee HBCU’s involved in the week-long effort – the First College to Community Outreach Week for reduction of infant mortality in Memphis.

According to the Tennessee Department of Health, 718 babies born in Tennessee died before their first birthdays in 2007, and in Memphis a baby dies every 43 hours — a rate higher than that of any other major city.

While some continue to believe such statistics are linked to poverty, the facts tell a different story, one that justifies OMH’s new focus on preconception health.

• African-American women who are college- and graduate-school educated have a higher infant mortality rate than white mothers who didn’t finish high school

• African-American women who get prenatal care in the first three months have double the infant mortality rate of white mothers with first trimester care

• African-American women with similar levels of prenatal care as Hispanic women have higher rates of low birth weight, preterm deliveries, and infant mortality.

For more information on local infant mortality reduction and prevention efforts, call the Shelby County Office on Infant Mortality at 901-526-1822.

May 16-23 was College to Community Outreach Week in Memphis and closed with a citywide baby shower and health fair in Hickory Hill. During the week, 20 HBCU students such as LeMoyne Owen’s Yolonda Spinks (far right) helped train 18 students at Memphis Academy of Health Sciences (MAHS) to be Preconception Peer Educators (PPE). Seventh-grader Kymberly Dyson (center) was among the new PPEs who trained others to be healthy before conception. Accompanied by MAHS social studies teacher Prima Atwell (far left), Dyson shared her knowledge with participants at the health fair. (Photo by Florence M. Howard)