Babies Can't Wait: Take Action to Protect Healthy Start

Did you know? New Haven Healthy Start (NHHS) is one of the 115 Healthy Start sites established through a 1991 presidential initiative under the George H.W. Bush administration. The program was designed to serve areas with higher-than-average infant mortality rates (IMR), a widely used metric that determines how many babies die within one year of being born, and helps scale the wellbeing of children and families in a given area. Since 1997, New Haven Healthy Start has made significant improvements on maternal and infant health outcomes locally, including halving New Haven’s IMR. Engaging in systems strengthening, direct service delivery, care coordination and research partnerships are all part of NHHS’ vital mission to ensure moms, dads and babies thrive. Nationally, the program serves more than 85,000 parents and newborns, and is overseen by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, requiring periodic reauthorization. 

What’s at stake: Under the new presidential administration, this program is on the chopping block, putting NHHS in jeopardy along with the 100-plus Healthy Start sites in rural and urban communities across the country.

What you can do: Mark Infant Morality Awareness Month by taking action today. Click here or the button below to quickly contact Connecticut lawmakers and ask them to save Healthy Start. In just a few swipes, you can request that Congress continue funding Healthy Start in the 2026 Health and Human Services budget. Note: When the form asks for “letter topic," you can select "budget" for U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Sen. Christopher Murphy. You can select "health" for U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro.

Infant Mortality Rates today: The national IMR remains high. While New Haven’s IMR has continued to decrease over the last decade, other disparities persist. “The 2024-2029 application was the first time in NHHS history that we were not eligible to apply based on our infant mortality rates,” said NHHS Director Natasha Ray. “It is the disparities in our preterm rates that qualified us.” According to National Center for Health Statistics, the preterm birth rate among babies born to Black birthing people in Connecticut is 1.4x higher than the rate among all other babies.