Fewer babies are on board for help by a mobile service
By Lucia Herndon, Inquirer Columnist

 This year the Maternity Care Coalition expected to be preparing for its 25th anniversary and the 15th anniversary of its MOMobile, the neighborhood van used to reach pregnant women on the street.

 The anniversary should be cause for celebration, but instead finds the nonprofit in anything but a celebratory mood.

 In July the agency, whose mission is to reduce infant mortality by steering pregnant women toward health resources, saw its federal and local funding for the MOMobile reduced by $500,000. That's a cut of about 17 percent from the care coalition's $3 million budget.

 According to executive director JoAnne Fischer, this has forced the closing of MOMobile sites in Strawberry Mansion and Germantown, and the elimination of seven of the coalition's 70 jobs. She said the cuts mean an end to annual home visits for 600 families in those areas.

 Prenatal care isn't all the MOMobile centers provide. The staff also assists with housing, food, diapers and infant immunizations.

 "It's heart-breaking," Fischer said. "We had become a part of the fabric of these communities." The MOMobile started in 1989, when the infant mortality rate in Philadelphia was 17 per 1,000 births. (In 2002, it was 10.6 per 1,000 births, though it has been higher in poorer and predominantly minority neighborhoods.)

 In 1992 I took a ride in the MOMobile, as workers took their efforts to the streets. The lemon-yellow van was easy to spot, and a welcome sight for several pregnant women we met that afternoon.

 I remember thinking it must be difficult to approach total strangers, sometimes hostile strangers, and ask them personal questions.

 But the women were dedicated to their work, offering information in a sisterly sort of way that, on that day at least, seemed sincerely welcomed by the pregnant women they met.

 That was just part of the day. They also made follow-up phone calls to pregnant women they'd previously contacted. Their job took them into some less-than-welcoming places: down dark stairways in dreary, sometimes crime-infested buildings that you wouldn't tell your mother you'd visited.

 In the last 15 years, the coalition has served 48,000 families through direct service, Fischer said.
 The coalition's research has shown that families who participate in MOMobile programs are more knowledgeable about healthy behaviors and more empowered to take care of themselves and their babies.

 That kind of empowerment has been seriously curtailed with the cuts in funding.

 The MOMobile program will continue with offices in North, Northeast, South and West Philadelphia, as well as four sites in the suburbs, said Fischer.

 "But we can't cover all the areas or see all the families we used to," she said.

 It's a shame that such a helpful service finds itself being cut back. If you feel the same, tell the mayor of Philadelphia or your representative in Congress.

 Contact Lucia Herndon at 215-854-5724 or lherndon@phillynews.com. For information about the Maternity Care Coalition, call 215-972-0700.