Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Your neighborhood. Your News.

Milwaukee NNSnewsMilwaukee NNSSearch
Subscribe to NNS today!
Advertisement
  • Home
  • News
    • Arts and Recreation
    • Community
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Health and Wellness
    • Housing
    • Public Safety
    • NNS Spotlight
    • Special Report
  • Posts From Community
    • Submit a Story
  • Community Voices
  • How To
  • Multimedia
    • NNS Local Video
    • Photos
    • NNS on Lake Effect
    • NNS WGLB 1560 Radio
  • Subscribe
  • Donate
  • About
    • Staff
    • Partners
    • News 414
    • The neighborhoods we cover
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Diederich College of Communication, Marquette University

You are here: Home / Home / Carousel / Harambee woman turns devastating loss of baby into fight against infant mortality

Harambee woman turns devastating loss of baby into fight against infant mortality

July 18, 2016 by Brendan O’Brien 1 Comment

Share this...
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin

Tonda Thompson has been advocating for healthy births since losing her baby boy in 2013. (Photo by Sue Vliet)

Tonda Thompson could have easily turned inward three years ago when she went through a mother’s worst nightmare as her newborn boy Terrell died in her arms, hours after he was born, leaving her devastated by her loss.

Instead, Thompson, 28, turned toward her community, becoming a strong advocate in the fight for healthy birth outcomes among minorities and in the search for solutions to combat infant mortality.

“We really don’t talk about infant mortality,” she said. “We are dealing with something that is really powerful within our community.”

Studies have shown that the infant mortality rate for African-American babies is at least three times higher than that for white babies in Milwaukee. Overall, about 60 percent of infant deaths in Milwaukee are caused by prematurity, which is preventable through better access to health care, reduced poverty and more father involvement, according to Milwaukee’s Lifecourse Initiative for Healthy Families (LIHF). LIHF is a community-wide collaboration led by the United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County.

“African-American families are dealing with these socioeconomic issues and health disparities such as poverty and joblessness, and infant mortality, to me, is a symptom of all of these things,” Thompson said. “I just really wanted to do something to make sure that we are all aware of these issues.”

Thompson has helped create the 5k HaRUNbee Walk/Run, to be held Saturday, Aug. 6, in Harambee, where she was raised, and which has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the city.

The inaugural HaRUNbee 5K Walk/Run event, which is being organized through LIHF, is intended to create awareness and bring the community together to address the issue of infant mortality, Thompson said.

“Harambee means ‘pulling together’ in Swahili. My hope for Harambee is to unify people of all races, sexual orientations, all genders and all ages and to help us realize that our babies are dying and that we need to find solutions to try to stop that,” she said.

Thompson said that when she was pregnant she went to all her doctor appointments, was physically fit and did not drink or smoke.

Thompson, who has dealt with depression since her son’s death, also hopes to increase awareness about mental illness and mental health related to being a mother and infant mortality.

“Within the African-American community, mental health has a stigma …we really need to look deeper with things that are going on with us mentally and we have to make sure we are mentally well enough to move on,” she said.

In 2015, 84 infants died in Milwaukee. The overall infant mortality rate for Milwaukee has decreased to 9.9 for every 1,000 live births from 2013 to 2015, from a rate of 10.2 from 2012 to 2014.

“We are encouraged to see infant mortality rates once again trend downward,” said Mayor Tom Barrett in a statement announcing the decrease. “However, the racial disparity in birth outcomes remains unacceptable and the rate of improvement remains inadequate, particularly for African-American babies. We must continue to do more to bring down these rates.”

Share this...
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin

Filed Under: Carousel, Harambee, Health and Wellness, Home, Neighborhoods, News, North

About Brendan O’Brien

Comments

  1. Mindy says

    October 18, 2016 at 10:00 pm

    This is awesome! My daughter Abby was full term stillborn 7 years ago. I am committed to finding a way to turn that tragedy into action. If anyone is near Milwaukee this Saturday join us at greenfield park!
    https://www.facebook.com/events/1576247372650377/?ti=icl

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement

Recent News

Pandemic benefits for children under 6 approved

Deadline for Marquette University high school journalism workshop is June 3

5 things to know and do this week in Milwaukee: May 23 to May 27

Advertisement
Give today to support our mission. Donate to Milwaukee NNS.
Advertisement

News

  • Arts and Recreation
  • Economic Development
  • Education
  • Health and Wellness
  • Housing
  • Public Safety
  • NNS Spotlight
  • Special Reports

Engage with us

  • Posts from Community
  • Community Voices
  • Submit a Story

About NNS

  • Staff
  • Partners
  • News414
  • The neighborhoods we cover
  • Careers
  • Terms of use
  • Advertise

Connect with us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS feed

Communities

Contact

mailing address
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Diederich College of Communication
Marquette University
1131 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Johnston Hall 430
Milwaukee, WI 53233

email
info@milwaukeenns.org

phone & fax
PHONE: 414.604.6397 FAX: 414.288.6494

Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service is a project of Diederich College of Communication and Marquette University.
© 2020 Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. Terms of use.
1131 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee WI 53233 • info@milwaukeenns.org

Copyright © 2022 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in