Springfield's Indian Orchard Citizens Council is organizing a community baby shower this weekend to share prenatal resources with pregnant women of color in western Massachusetts.
Zaida Govan, president of the council, said there aren't a lot of resources for mothers of color, so she wanted to take action.
"Maternal child health outcomes are absolutely worse for women of color, so we want to address that issue," she said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women.
Govan said the event is meant to bring awareness about the often negative health outcomes for women of color.
"We have to figure out a way to make sure that we can have access to the resources we need and make sure that our moms and our children are born healthy and then continue on to having healthy lives," she said.
Govan used funds from a Health New England grant to put on the event. She said the event won't just be informative, but will also have activities for the whole family, including gifts for new mothers.
Full disclosure that Health New England is owned by Baystate Health which is a financial supporter of New England Public Media. However, that does not influence our news coverage.
