A small but determined group of women is intent on making a difference in the disproportionately high numbers of minority women suffering from a loss of a child.
In East Flatbush, a neighborhood that is 89 percent black, infant mortality is an issue that is slowly starting to be addressed. The infant mortality rate is six times higher in East Flatbush than on the Upper East Side, according to a study by the NYC Department of Health on Community District 17.
“Society, in general, doesn’t talk a lot about miscarriages and stillbirths, any kind of loss and so women sometimes feel as if they are alone in the hurt and the pain without having a group of people who really understand what their experience is,” said Natalee Facey, a workshop leader at The Baby Resource Center who lost a child at 17 weeks and four days.
