Stacey Stephens, MSW, LCSW-C, clinical associate professor and director of B’more for Healthy Babies at the Center for Restorative Change, joined colleagues from the Baltimore City Health Department, Health Care Access Maryland, and Baltimore Medical Systems to present "B’more for Healthy Babies: How Baltimore City’s Centralized Care Coordination and Neighborhood Mobilization Have Cut Infant Mortality and the Black-White Disparity by nearly half in 15 years" at the 2025 CityMatCH Maternal and Child Health Leadership Conference in St. Louis.
Stephens highlighted the program's evidence-based and community-informed framework that focuses on the determinants of well-being at every level of system to eliminate infant health disparities. She presented the program’s continuum of perinatal services, the power of cross-community relationships, and the community-led expansion efforts to sustain future programming. Stephens identified how the work has expanded to include addressing the social and environmental factors that lead to poor birth outcomes. Today, the neighborhoods of Upton and Druid Heights have some of the lowest infant death rates in the city, and they are lower than the overall city rate.
Photo with colleagues from Baltimore City Health Department, Baltimore Medical Systems, and Dr. Michael Liu-Dean of Berkley School of Public Health and Dr. Michael Warren, Chief Medical and Health Officer of March of Dimes.