San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and several supervisors announced Monday a plan to address maternal and infant health.
The Strong Starts initiative aims to get different city departments to move forward with the common goal of reducing preterm birth rates and infant mortality.
Lurie said San Francisco spends more than $20 million on maternal and infant care per year, but the outcomes are not the same for the city’s diverse communities, like Native American, Pacific Islander and Black communities.
“In San Francisco, Black babies are born preterm at nearly twice the city average and make up 20% of infant deaths despite accounting for only 4% of all births,” Lurie said. “That is unacceptable.”
With a looming budget deficit, Lurie said part of the work will be securing state and federal funding to address healthcare, housing, food security — all issues that impact a baby’s first year.
The work will also involve setting goals across different departments to align priorities and gathering data to examine how all funds are spent and how services are delivered.