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- “NPT Reports: Children’s Health Crisis: Infant Mortality” airs June 24 -
- Premiere kicks off with screening at Vanderbilt’s Family Reunion 2010 with Mayor Karl Dean, Memphis Mayor A C Wharton, Jr., Kimberly Williams-Paisley and more expected to attend -
NASHVILLE, Tennessee – June 8, 2010 – Infant mortality rates say more about us than simply how many babies will live to see their first birthday. They are an early indicator of what the future holds for the health of our communities.
Tennessee ranks 47th nationally in infant mortality rates, with more than 700 babies dying each year. Only 61% of babies born in Tennessee have received adequate prenatal care and nearly one in ten babies born in Davidson County are of low-birth weight. Single mothers, black mothers and urban residents suffer an even higher infant mortality rates.
In “NPT Reports: Children’s Health Crisis: Infant Mortality,” the second in a seven-part series, Nashville Public Television (NPT) focuses on issues surrounding Tennessee’s infant mortality rates and birth outcomes, talking with policymakers, health professionals and parents. Hosted by actress, mother of two and Tennessee resident Kimberly Williams-Paisley (“Father of the Bride,” “ According to Jim,” “Amish Grace”) and produced by Will Pedigo (“Next Door Neighbors,” “Living On: Tennesseans Remembering the Holocaust”), the documentary explores what Tennessee’s infant mortality rates mean for its communities, and what we can do to improve birth outcomes for all Tennesseans. It premieres Thursday, June 24 at 8:00 p.m. on NPT-Channel 8 and will be made available at wnpt.net/childrenshealth the following day.
The documentary will be previewed the morning of its premiere, Thursday, June 24, at “Family Reunion 2010: Families and Healthy Beginnings,” a day-long symposium about infant mortality and prematurity to be held at Langford Auditorium at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Together with physicians, local, state and national experts, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, Memphis Mayor A C Wharton, Jr., Williams-Paisley and more expected to attend. For more information, please visit http://www.vanderbiltchildrens.org/familyreunion.
The first installment in the “NPT Reports: Children’s Health Crisis” series, an overview, can be seen now wnpt.net/childrenshealth.
“At the same time that prematurity has increased, health disparities have also continued to widen, along lines of race, geography, socioeconomic status and education,” said Pedigo, who culled stories from rural East Tennessee, Nashville and Memphis to explore what is being done to address health disparities in Tennessee. “At the same time, we learned no one is immune from poor maternal and infant health. Even the performance of our best counties fall below the attainable benchmarks our national policy makers have defined for birth outcomes.”
“NPT Reports: Children’s Health Crisis: Infant Mortality,” will highlight some evidence-based solutions currently being used in Tennessee to address birth outcomes and health disparities, among them Davidson County’s Fetal Infant Mortality Review program, Shelby County’s Community Voice, and Centering Pregnancy.
“The importance of addressing infant mortality and prematurity cannot be understated,” adds Beth Curley, president and CEO of NPT. “We have a chance here to break the cycle. Improving the health of our youngest children will help them become adults better prepared to have children of their own. They’ll be more productive members of society and live longer healthier lives.”
NPT’s Children’s Health Crisis Project is a three-year initiative built around a series of seven documentaries on the state of children’s health in Tennessee. Other elements of the project include follow-up discussion programs, health-related spots, weekly on-air reports, an extensive project website at http://wnpt.net/childrenshealth and community outreach on related topics.
Episode three, to premiere in November 2010, looks at daunting childhood obesity rates in Tennessee, where 41 percent of children are overweight or at risk for being overweight.
"NPT Reports: Children’s Health Crisis" is made possible through major support by the Healthways Foundation, the Nashville Healthcare Council, the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, with additional funding by the Orrin H. Ingram Fund. A multitude of community partnerships have provided invaluable support to the project, most notably Alignment Nashville, whose “5 Pillars of Children’s Health” provided the initial outline for the project.
About Nashville Public Television
Nashville Public Television is available free and over the air to nearly 2.4 million people throughout the Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky viewing area, and is watched by more than 600,000 households every week. The mission of NPT is to provide, through the power of traditional television and interactive telecommunications, high quality educational, cultural and civic experiences that address issues and concerns of the people of the Nashville region, and which thereby help improve the lives of those we serve.
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