Wisconsin State Legislature Joins Fight against Infant Mortality

The Wisconsin State Legislature is joining the Wisconsin Partnership Program (WPP) in the fight against infant mortality.

State Senator Judy Robson (Beloit) and Rep. Cory Mason (Racine) will chair a Legislative Council Special Committee on infant mortality. This work will operate in parallel to that of the Wisconsin Partnership Program, which in 2008 pledged $10 million to address infant mortality in the state's African-American community. 

Through the WPP-sponsored Lifecourse Initiative for Healthy Families (LIHF), community coalitions in Beloit, Kenosha, Milwaukee and Racine are working to improve birth outcomes. Currently, a black child born in Wisconsin is more than three times more likely to die before his or her first birthday than a white child.

The WPP has made planning grants to coalitions in Beloit, Kenosha, Milwaukee, and Racine to create community-specific action plans aimed at improving access to maternal and child health resources using evidence-based and promising practices to close the racial disparity in birth outcomes. 

The Legislative Special Committee will study the causes and public health costs of infant mortality as well as steps taken in other regions to remedy the problem. The committee will develop a strategic plan to reduce infant mortality in Wisconsin and make recommendations to the Legislature. 

Among the information legislators will have to draw on during this effort was a Breakfast Briefing provided by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health's Advancing Evidence-Based Policy program. The program ensures policymakers have access to the most current evidence when forming health policy. A Wisconsin Partnership Program grant supports this collaboration among the UW Population Health Institute, the Legislative Council, and the Lafollette School of Public Affairs.