Town Hall Meeting Held On Infant Mortality Rate In Camden

By Hadas Kuznits

CAMDEN, N.J., (CBS) -- A Town Hall meeting was held to help gather information in an effort to help reduce the infant mortality rate in Camden.

Dianne Browne, project director for Camden Healthy Start, says there's a lot of work to be done in Camden when it comes to driving down the infant mortality rate.

"Compared to the county and compared to the state, we are almost double the infant mortality rate as in the state of New Jersey!"

She says there are some clear factors that lead to this high rate.

"We know women have premature births and we know that babies are born with a low birth weight and that can have an impact on the life of a child."

Camden mom Fatimah Shakir says she's learned that the stress of a person's life can seriously impact their baby and their health care.

"How the medical providers treat you. Stress of your environment, economical, what you're used to! If you're used to people treating you bad, you're going to stay mentally stuck in that area. If you don't know your worth, you're going say hey, well, I get treated like this at home so it's okay for my doctor to treat me like this."