EVANSVILLE — A "homegrown" program created by the Vanderburgh County Health Department is a key driver behind the county's lowest infant mortality rate in more than a decade, one health board member says.
The infant mortality rate in Vanderburgh County for the 2024 study year — the most recent available — is 3.8/1,000 live births, or 3.8 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births. The data is found in the Indiana Department of Health Maternal Child Health Dashboard, which reveals that the number was 11.8/1,000 as recently as 2020.
The Vanderburgh County Health Department attributes the improvement essentially to active intervention in lieu of data collection alone.
Partnerships with such local health organizations as the Foundation for Better Health, Deaconess Women's Hospital, Ascension St. Vincent Evansville and the Welborn Baptist Foundation also are part of the formula. The collaboration is intended to bridge the gap between clinical expertise, advocacy and education groups and community-based organizations to effect care that's responsive to families' unique needs.
There may be no better example of this, health board member Margaret Musgrave said, than the health department's Pre to 3 Program, which offers free home visits from health workers. The program serves about 300 families from pregnancy until the baby turns three years old. It is open to pregnant women or those with an infant under 90 days old. They must reside in Vanderburgh County.
"It's not a national program. The Vanderburgh County Health Department created it all on its own from scratch," Musgrave said.
Of the roughly 2,200 live births Vanderburgh County sees yearly, Musgrave said, about 1,000 of the families are on Medicaid.
"We would love to have all 1,000 of those kids in the Pre to 3 Program," she said. "It’s important to note that this program is not just for new mothers. It's for mothers who are on their 2nd, 3rd and 4th kid, and it's not just for the disadvantaged.
"If you're a millionaire, you can enroll in the Pre to 3 program. It doesn’t matter how much money you have. Everybody needs help and support."
Sophie French, a registered nurse who supervises Pre to 3 for the health department, said the most important work to aid the child, the mother and the family unit is being done on the ground level.
"Trusted relationships are the catalyst for change," French said in a statement from VCHD. "Through Pre to 3, we partner with families to address the social drivers of health, ensuring every caregiver has the education and support they need to help their children thrive.
"When families know you are truly in their corner, it opens the door to provide meaningful support and ensures no caregiver feels they are in this alone."
Health officials in Vanderburgh County had long targeted the local infant mortality rate for improvement.
In a handout last updated in July 2022, the health department decried a rate of eight infant deaths for every 1,000 live births, which it said meant that roughly 17 babies weren't making it to their first birthday every year.
The recent success is regional, too.
The Southwest Indiana Region has the lowest five-year infant mortality rate (5.5/1,000 live births from 2020-2024) among regions in the state.
Health department officials have said the current success lowering Vanderburgh County's rate is built on other pillars as well, including an evidence-based aspirin therapy initiative described as a "collaboration among birthing centers and OB providers to increase aspirin therapy recommendation to promote prevention of preeclampsia and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy."
The premise is that low dose aspirin helps prevent the pregnancy complication preeclampsia and thus reduces early deliveries and low-birth weight infants.
VCHD has estimated that two infant deaths per year in Vanderburgh are attributable to unsafe sleeping practices, though there were none in 2024. So education on safe sleep practices also has been a pillar of the campaign to lower infant mortality.
"I think it’s really important to note how proactive we’ve been on this problem," Musgrave told the Courier & Press. "We’re not sitting back on our heels.
"We are going out and finding evidence-based solutions to help babies in Vanderburgh County, but also Southwestern Indiana as a whole."
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