Everyday items like cribs and bassinets help mothers and babies meet life’s milestones
Ever look at someone you love when the light shrouds them in such a way that your heart stops for a moment?
You want time to stand still so you can hold the beauty of the moment and never let it go.
But the moment passes – and so do a million more in a lifetime.
Mothers with newborn babies intimately know this kind of fleeting beauty. Each day brings new milestones of first smiles, first laughs and first hugs. And then the moments pass.
"I want her to stay like this forever," said Latyra Wilson, 22, of her 4-month-old daughter, Kumoni. "But I know she won't."
The women who operate the Black Infant Health program on Florin Road are working to ensure that low-income mothers such as Wilson and their babies meet and pass all of life's precious milestones.
To do that, babies need to have regular doctor visits, warm clothes, cribs and good nutrition.
The women at the health program work to provide that kind of support to more than 130 mothers of infants.
"We do all we can to help make sure the baby survives," said Mika Malone, a community health outreach worker.
The outreach workers help mothers schedule doctor's appointments and, if needed, transportation to them.
They also help mothers find monetary assistance programs if they can't pay their bills. Or they just talk them through the myriad small problems that pop up with babies.
"Sometimes you get in a tizzy and you feel like it's the end of the world, but it's not the end of the world," said Zuri Colbert, a program outreach worker.
For Wilson, the program has helped her maneuver through the transitions of caring for a new baby.
"They make sure (the moms) keep up with the doctor visits," said Wilson, who is mother to Kumoni and 4-year-old Anji.
Black Infant Health workers also try to provide new mothers baby furniture or other items that they lack.
"A lot of them don't have car seats or cribs," said Evelyn Brown, BIH program director.
"Sometimes we have them use a drawer if they don't have a crib," Brown said.
BIH employees have asked Book of Dreams readers to help them buy cribs.
The everyday items are intended to keep babies healthy, so they can have a lifetime of first moments.