The Black Infant Mortality Reduction Resource Center (BIMR) is one of the major initiatives started by the Northern Consortium.

• The Center strives to increase professional and public awareness by serving as a statewide clearinghouse for health care professionals and consumers.
• BIMRRC provides technical support to individuals interested in improving maternal and infant health in Black families, promoting increased research and education.
• The Center mobilizes the community towards greater empowerment, operating a speaker's bureau and conducting outreach projects, implementing strategies to decrease the frequency of low birth weight infants.

One of the projects run through the Center is "Reduce Stress for Babies Best." The program provides one-on-one stress management sessions to pregnant Black women to reduce their incidence of low birth weight and premature births.

• A baby born at low birth weight (less than 5 1/2 pounds) is at greater risk. Most low birth weight occurs because babies are born early. Nearly 20% of Black babies compared to 9% of White babies are born premature.

• A particular kind of vaginal infection (bacterial vaginosis) increases a woman's risk of delivering early or losing a baby. This infection is found twice as often among Black women as White women. It can be treated.

• Stress is a significant risk factor for preterm delivery. Increased levels of mothers' psychosocial stress, such as pressures at work, home, and family, are related to preterm delivery and lower birth weight.

• Pressures in society can negatively affect a pregnant woman. A NJ Blue Ribbon Panel Report on Black Infant Mortality Reduction found that racism, classism, and sexism are likely contributors to higher infant mortality rates among Blacks.
  
  
  

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