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Agency A Lifeline For Infants

Tribune photo by CLIFF MCBRIDE

Klental Peterson, who is expecting her second child, lives at Alpha House. The home for pregnant women and new mothers has an exceptional track record in keeping babies healthy.

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By SHERRI ACKERMAN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 5, 2008

TAMPA - TAMPA - As Hillsborough County struggles to understand why black babies here and elsewhere in Florida die more frequently than white ones, one local agency is bucking the disturbing trend.

In more than a decade of providing services to pregnant women and their infants, Alpha House has never had an infant 28 days or younger - black, white or Hispanic - die.

That's 420 babies, proof enough something is going right, said Bonnie Christiano, the agency's executive director.

"There should've been about 2.3 statistically," she said. "Something is happening here or something is not."

Only two infants, one white and one black, have died, but they were older and the cause was attributed to co-sleeping, Christiano said.

Hillsborough is among nine counties directed by the Legislature to study why such a disparity exists. The county mortality rate for black infants is 18.4 per 1,000 live births. The rate for white infants is 6 per 1,000.

Black infants die at two to four times the rate of white infants in the first 28 days of life, according to research provided by the Healthy Start Coalition. The group is leading the Black Infant Health Practice Initiative and has spent the past two years studying the issue in search of solutions.

Causes vary from environmental issues such as substance abuse to socioeconomic issues such as a lack of health and family support, racism and poverty.

Christiano and others wonder whether Alpha House's track record could offer clues.

It's a no-brainer that getting support and having access to services from housing to medical care are making a difference, said Luanne Panacek of the Children's Board of Hillsborough County, a government-funded agency dedicated to improving children's lives.

"These are the things that have surfaced that black women aren't getting," she said.

No one is sure exactly what Alpha House is doing that is making the difference. Christiano hopes someone will take an interest in the numbers and help them track the findings.

"The most astonishing part is our women have the most risk," said Cathi Hardesty, director of development at Alpha House.

About 25 to 30 women live at the small compound of buildings situated along a tidy South Tampa block on Tampania Avenue.

Some are pregnant teens from the state's foster care system. Others are from drug treatment centers or jail. Some have been homeless or victims of domestic violence and have gone without eating properly and/or receiving prenatal care.

When they come to Alpha House, they usually are angry and scared. Eventually, they learn to take care of themselves and their babies. Sometimes that takes six months, sometimes as long as two years.

"They can stay as long as they need to," Christiano said. "As long as they are working toward self-sufficiency."

Klental Peterson, 22, has been at Alpha House for four months. At 71/2-months pregnant, she plans to live in one of the agency's transitional apartments after the birth of her daughter.

"When I was 16 I started running away, staying with people," said Peterson, whose 3-year-old son lives with her mother.

"My mom gave me one more chance, then she brought me here."

She makes all her doctor appointments now, eats well and just graduated from Gary Adult High School. She wants to be a child care teacher and get her son back.

Peterson also receives job placement assistance and counseling, including a program on trauma recovery and empowerment.

She's ready to move forward, but she has no interest in looking back.

That part of her life is over. Now it's about being a good mother.

Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144 or sackerman@tampatrib.com.

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