aboutus | Cradle Cincinnati

About Us

Who is Cradle Cincinnati

Cradle Cincinnati was founded in 2012 as a collaborative effort between parents, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and community members with a commitment to reduce infant mortality in our community. In Hamilton County, 8.98 babies died for every 1,000 who were born from 2013-2017. That’s a dramatic improvement over where we have been in the past but still puts us among the worst 10% in the country. While our rate is steadily improving, our work is far from complete.

What is infant mortality?

A community’s infant mortality rate is the rate at which live-born babies in that community die from any cause before their first birthday. It’s typically portrayed as deaths per one thousand live births. So, for example, the 2015 infant mortality rate in the US was 5.90. That means that for every 1,000 babies born alive in the US in 2015, 5.90 did not survive. Because its causes are so multi-faceted, infant mortality is frequently cited as one of the best measures of a community’s overall health.

Vision:

Every child in Hamilton County will live to see his or her first birthday.

Mission:

Cradle Cincinnati is a network of partners working across sectors to measurably improve preconception health, pregnancy health and infant health in order to reduce preterm birth and infant mortality in Hamilton County.

Our Goals

Goal 1

Reduce the number of babies born before the end of the second trimester by 33% by 2023, bringing us to the national average.

Replicate one neighborhood’s success at eliminating extreme preterm birth.

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1A

Address implicit bias, starting in prenatal care settings.

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1B

Mitigate stress during pregnancy through social support.

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1C

Increase the % of pregnancies that are expected and have healthy timing.

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1D

Decrease the % of women smoking during the second and third trimester of their pregnancies.

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1E

Goal 2

Eliminate sleep-related infant deaths in Hamilton County by 2023.

Increase awareness of the American Academy of Pediatrics safe sleep recommendations.

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2A

Address barriers to safe sleep practices.

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2B

Goal 3

Promote what we know about reducing birth defects and lead the way on new scientific discovery to better understand congenital anomalies.

Birth Defects in Hamilton County, Ohio

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3

Get to know us

OUR STAFF
OUR ADVISORY BOARD
OUr Subcommittees

Contact Us: info@cradlecincinnati.org

The impact of hundreds of partners over the past 5 years is encouraging

10%

decline in short pregnancy spacing

30%

decline in smoking during pregnancy

25%

decline in sleep related deaths

17%

decline in extreme preterm births

15%

decline in infant deaths

Our Failures

Too often, nonprofits are incentivized to pretend like they have all the answers. But we believe you learn more from your failures than your successes. Here are some important ways in which we’ve fallen short and strive to constantly improve.

Involve community at every step in every way

When we started our work, we made the very wrong assumption that community engagement was a service that could be purchased and a box that could be checked.

Instead, we’ve learned that it needs to be a philosophy at the very heart of our work. There is no decision or design that isn’t made stronger by co-creating it with individuals most impacted by the problem.

Get the scale right

We’ve frequently built solutions that were too small.

Yes, it can be smart to pilot something in order to learn.

Yes, the first phase might need to be manageable. But small
solutions are too safe.

There are 11,000 births each year in Hamilton County. Once we’ve found solutions that work for 10 moms, we cannot forget the hard work of asking how we make it work for 100 or 1,000 moms.

What works for one issue, won’t work for every issue

We saw a huge impact from a large public health messaging campaign around safe sleep.

So, we assumed that public health messaging might also be the solution for smoking.

We quickly learned that one-on-one support is what moms need to quit smoking and messaging could only play a very small role. Different problems
require different solutions.

Solutions are local

When you analyze the drivers of preterm birth in different Cincinnati neighborhoods, you find causes that vary by zip code.

And moms have told us clearly: do not assume that the solution over there will be the solution here. People want to be treated like individuals and each place needs its own outreach and its own solutions.

Better systems lead to better data

But, we’ve learned again and again – when data systems have weaknesses, the information they give us simply isn’t actionable.

If a question is worded vaguely on a survey, it won’t lead to better information. If vital statistics only asks about cigarettes, it can’t tell us anything about cigarillos or vaping.

And if data systems are too long or cumbersome, its answers will never be complete.

Words matter

Pregnancy is a topic that is absolutely surrounded by judgment. People can easily feel judged around it and – intentionally or not – people can easily be judgmental around it. And yet, nothing shuts people down like judgment. So, it’s incredibly important that we be clear and unequivocal in leading with empathy.

For our messages to be heard, we must constantly listen to the language that makes moms most comfortable and evolve the way we speak accordingly.

Thinking of starting a similar effort in your community?

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Latest Updates

May 17, 2023
Black Women Leaders to Gather in Cincinnati May 19-20 for Inaugural Queens Village National Summit
Black women from across the country are coming together in Cincinnati this week in the fight for more first birthdays. Queens Village, an initiative of Cradle Cincinnati, is hosting its...
May 4, 2023
Meeting Families Where They Are: Community Health Workers
Community health workers are one of the best resources for parents-to-be, which is why many organizations are adding them to their teams. But have you ever wondered what exactly a...
April 28, 2023
Queens Village, 33 West Studio, Contemporary Arts Center and More Unite on Multimedia Project to Center and Celebrate Black Motherhood
Queens Village, 33 West Studios, and the Contemporary Art Center’s Co-LAB program with support from ArtsWave are proud to announce the next iteration of Through Her Eyes, an initiative to...