City's Infant Fatalities Spiked in 2005

"There still needs to be a major emphasis on outreach, making sure we go door to door, getting these people into care early," she said.

The review committee made several recommendations. It suggested that health officials aggressively reach out to women who miss prenatal appointments by writing, calling or visiting. It also suggested that the health department determine whether there are adequate resources in the District to care for women with high-risk pregnancies and for critically ill infants.

The panel is made up of about 50 people from District social and public service agencies, including the police department, the school system, hospitals and the departments of Health, Human Services, and Child and Family Services.

D.C. Council member Tommy Wells (D- Ward 6), chairman of the Human Services Committee, plans two hearings, today and March 2, to review the report as part of his review of the Department of Human Services and the city's Children and Youth Investment Fund, said his spokesman, Charles Allen.

Leila Abrar, a Department of Health spokeswoman, said that the 2005 data might represent a one-year glitch in a downward trend. According to the report, infant deaths dropped 15 percent from 2002 to 2003 and remained flat before increasing in 2005. The department plans to release its own statistics, including information on infant mortality rates, in the spring.

Some deaths occur because many young parents don't know how to act around their newborns, said Brenda H. Jones, executive director of the Parklands Community Center. That's particularly true of parents who were born during the 1980s crack epidemic, she said.

"Many of them weren't taught themselves, and now they're parents," she said.

"Although their physicians tell them they have to take their babies for their six-week follow-ups," she said, "there's no follow-up to make sure that they do, even if that means picking them up at home and making sure they make that appointment."