MyBaby4Me launch in Nashville seeks to lower baby and mother death rate in 37208 community
Julia Mejia had a simple goal that drove her and infant daughter Sophia to attend a rally to launch a new program designed to address a complex problem of hopelessness many mothers and children experience in North Nashville.
“I’m a young mom and I think it’s going to help me raise my kids better,” Mejia, 27, said with Sophia beside her Saturday at Ephesian Primitive Baptist Church 22nd Avenue North where the rally was held.
MyBaby4Me is the program designed to target infant and maternal mortality rates mainly in the 37208 zip code that organizers say is two to three times higher than the national average.
“This is a solution to curtail some things,” Ephesian Primitive Baptist Church Pastor Cornelius Hill said as part of an opening prayer that joined the sound of babies crying.
"I'm looking at the emotional drift that's happening with young mothers in this community, how they feel abandoned, they don't feel a sense of connectivity that they need to be good mothers," Hill said after the rally.
The Nashville program is patterned after a MyBaby4Me operation in Memphis that began more than year ago.
Volunteers with The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints are trained to lead the program that will operate out of the Catholic Charities’ Family Resource Center at C.E. McGruder with support from Catholic Charities and a number of community partners.
Class sessions will be held every Monday and Thursday and every third Saturday. The classes are designed for mothers with children less than a year old, but up to 18 months are accepted. Childcare is available, a hot meal will be served and perks can include grocery gift cards. Fathers and other family members are also welcome, said Carla Parker, one of the organizers with The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints.
MyBaby4Me will seek to help with food support, transportation if needed, housing, consistent prenatal care assistance and education and employment assistance to young mothers.
“When you have a crying baby and you’re learning it can be overwhelming,” Gaines Pierce, 29, the mother of a six-week old daughter, said attending the rally. “Support is important at the beginning stages.”
Roughly 30 mothers attended the launch with hopes to grow it substantially as programs and services get underway on Feb. 12.
Dr. Edward Brown, a retired pediatrician from Utah, and his wife Lorraine Brown, who worked as a family law attorney, are moving to Nashville to lead the classes that will begin Feb. 12. The Browns raised 11 children.
“It takes a village to raise a child and these organizations have come together to do just that,” Lorraine Brown said in a statement through The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “It also takes a family to raise a child. That is what we will become at MyBaby4Me, a family.”
Those interested in MyBaby4Me can call 801-222-9463 or email Carlaparker@comm.churchofjesuschrist.org.
“The crying babies was music to my ears,” Carla Parker, one of the organizers with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said of the rally. “We’re going to take care of moms and those sweet babies the best we can. And it’s going to make a difference, a generational one I think.”
Reach Andy Humbles at ahumbles@tennessean.com or 615-726-5939 and on X, formerly known as Twitter @ AndyHumbles.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: MyBaby4Me aims high for young moms and kids in North Nashville
