Citywide baby shower planned in Youngstown
YOUNGSTOWN
A citywide baby shower, the first of a nationwide series of baby showers sponsored by United Healthcare, will help kick off 2015 Youngstown Minority Health Month events here Saturday.
The baby shower, from noon to 2 p.m., will follow a health fair from 10 a.m. to noon at Arlington Heights Recreation Center, 801 Park Ave.
The primary goals of the health fair and baby shower are to highlight minority health and raise awareness about the higher incidence of numerous diseases, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and prostate cancer, and infant mortality in the minority community, said Erin Bishop, commissioner of the Youngstown City Health District.
The health fair, funded by the Ohio Commission on Minority Health, begins with a “stroller stroll” around the Arlington Heights Recreation Center to encourage parents and kids to exercise and become physically fit, Bishop said.
“We’re excited and honored that UnitedHealthcare chose Youngstown to kick off its baby shower program,” she said.
Before the stroller stroll, the UnitedHealthcare mascot, Dr. Health E. Hound, will lead the group in doing stretches, said Leigh Greene-Colvin, director of the Youngstown Office on Minority Health.
At an 11 a.m. news conference, representatives of UnitedHealthcare and Mayor John A. McNally and Councilman Nate Pinkard, D-3rd, will address attendees.
The health fair offers free health screenings, including blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol, and vendors with health information. Participants also will receive an informational booklet on nutrition, immunizations, safe sleep and other topics designed and donated by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority’s Youngstown Alumni Chapter, Colvin said.
The focus of the citywide baby shower is on infant mortality and how to prevent deaths in the first year of life, said Bishop, co-chairwoman of the Mahoning-Youngstown Birth Outcome Equity Team, which has identified and prioritized areas to improve the overall infant-mortality rate.
Bishop, also a member of the Ohio Institute for Equity in Birth Outcomes Leadership Team representing all Ohio Equity Institute teams, said one of the baby-shower activities is a game of bingo in which participants, when their card comes up, go to stations to hear information on crib safe sleep, car-seat safety, progesterone, birth spacing and centering pregnancy.
“It is crucial that they hear this information for the welfare of their babies,” Bishop said.
She said there will be free food and a gift bag for participants that contains a baby sleep sack.