Laticia Montgomery knows how it feels to be scared, especially with the delivery of two low-birth-weight babies who were both born six weeks early.

The 24-year-old was taking care of herself, going to the doctor, drinking water and eating plenty of fruit, but that wasn't enough when her first-born daughter, Alexandria, was eventually born at just 3 pounds, 11 ounces.

"She was born with a heart defect, and she used to stop breathing. She used to get mucus in her nose and mouth and didn't know to breathe. I had to hurry up and get a syringe. She was on a heart monitor when she left the hospital, and I had to take a CPR class before I brought her home. She had open heart surgery when she was 8 months old," Montgomery said.

"It was like I did everything right with her. Being that it was my first child, I took prenatal vitamins, and she came out with a heart defect. With Alexandria, I was real scared. I went through a real depression stage because she had to go through heart surgery," said Montgomery, who went on to have second daughter, Shy'Asia, who was born just a little larger at 4 pounds, 8 ounces.

She began to wonder if she was able to carry any baby full term, even her largest child was born six weeks early at 5 pounds, 11 ounces.

"Shy'Asia stayed in the hospital for like a week before I brought her home. She had to stay until she got her weight up. I was scared to hold her and Alexandria," said Montgomery, who made every attempt to care for both of her low-birth-weight babies once they were healthy enough to return home.

What message does she have for other women of low-birth-weight babies?

"They don't have to give up. Even though the babies are small, they're just like anybody else. You can't even look at my kids and tell they were preemies. Be strong and everything will be alright. They may be small, but they're not going to stay small forever," Montgomery said.

Because of a desire to motivate other mothers, Montgomery and Orangeburg resident Rashida Felder, whose baby, Ja'niya, was born at 5 pounds, 3 ounces, have both been designated ambassadors during Low Country Healthy Start's third annual Infant Mortality Awareness Walk. The walk will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 31, at William J. Clark Middle School in Orangeburg.

'We are seeing

a decrease'

Low Country Healthy Start, a Denmark-based maternal and infant wellness program, is continuing to make strides in the promotion of healthy pregnancies and births with the awareness walk. It is administered through the South Carolina State Office of Rural Health, which received a federal grant in September 1997 from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, the Health Resources Administration, and the Department of Health and Human Services to reduce infant mortality in the four rural, underserved counties of Allendale, Bamberg, Hampton and Orangeburg.

In its ninth year of operation, LCHC continues to address perinatal disparities with services ranging from outreach and case management to health education and interconceptional care.

LCHC will hold its annual Infant Mortality Awareness Walk in collaboration with the Orangeburg Chapter of the Links Inc.

"We are seeing a decrease in infant mortality, but even one number is too large. What we continue to see is the disparities when it comes to overall health and lifestyle, particularly among black women. We're finding they're actually unhealthy in their preconception stages, which kind of increased the risk of having a poor pregnancy outcome," said LCHS Program Director Virginia Berry White, LMSW.

The community is welcome to participate in the walk, particularly parents and families of babies weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces. A two-mile trek led by mothers of low-birth-weight babies will be made around the middle school track. They will also receive medallions along with anyone who was born a low-birth-weight baby.

State Rep. Jerry Govan, Orangeburg Mayor Paul Miller and Elder Juenarrl Keith of the Seventh District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church are all slated to make comments during a pre-walk ceremony.

Links president Brenda Jamerson said the history of the organization's partnership with LCHS began with the Links' initiation of a Healthy People 2010 project. With that project, the group collaborated with Govan to sponsor a bill called the Healthy South Carolinians Act to bring awareness to disparities seen among minorities and nonminorities in disease, disabilities and premature death.

'We're trying

to educate women'

"There was a forum held in April 2005 which invited several organizations to deal with ... the health disparities in Orangeburg County. From that collaborations formed, including with Low Country Healthy Start," Jamerson said. "Of particular significance to us has been the infant mortality and the disproportionate burden of infant death in Orangeburg County between blacks and other nonminorities."

Jamerson, whose own oldest daughter, Rachelle, weighed just 3 pounds at birth, said the Links also has its own Linking To Our Health program to target health disparities. The formulation of a health disparity network is among its five goals.

Access to adequate and risk-appropriate health care and first-trimester admission to prenatal are among the disparate areas in the LCHS service area. Congenital malformations such as spina bifida and Down's Syndrome; defamation disorders related to short gestation and low-birth-weight births are the top three leading causes of infant death.

Statistics from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control's vital records division indicate disparities among blacks and whites in the percentage of live birth mothers who received first-trimester admission to prenatal care between 2002 and 4004.

In Orangeburg County, for example, 62.2 percent of blacks received care compared to 76.7 percent of whites. There were 69.4 percent of black receiving first-trimester care in Bamberg County compared to 86.9 percent of whites.

Black infant death rates, however, decreased in Orangeburg from 48 deaths from 1999 to 2001 to 23 deaths from 2002-2004. The rates decreased in Bamberg from nine to five deaths during the same periods.

"One of the things that we're also looking at is the post delivery stage. We're trying to educate women on pregnancy spacing, to wait at least two years before getting pregnant again to allow the body to heal and get back together," White said.

She said changes in Medicaid eligibility requirements, however, are making it harder for some young women to even pay for a pregnancy.

"What we have to do is educate them about the Medicaid system and how they have to have a payment source. They're not taken free, and this delays time to get into care early. We try to find those women early on in the pregnancy and make sure they have a source, they're on WIC and have actually contacted a provider," White said.

White said infant mortality rates in the LCHS service area, however, have shown improvement. She noted that DHEC statistics also revealed that while the LCHS region had 59 infant deaths in its entire region from 2002-2004, there were only 25 deaths in 2004 alone.

"So, it did decrease somewhat," she said.

Rubina Fogle, a licensed social worker and co-chairperson of this year's walk, said more than 300 people turned out at last year's event, and she's expecting the same turnout this year. Orangeburg-Bamberg-Calhoun Safe Kids; CASA Family Systems and the Department of Disabilities and Special Needs will be among the exhibitors.

The LCHS is also selling $1 cards which contains a baby's footprints. Proceeds will go towards the provision of scholarships for LCHS consumers.

For more information on the upcoming infant mortality awareness walk or the scholarship fundraiser, please call the LCHS office toll-free at 1-888-581-0319.

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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