With Funding Cuts, ‘the Health of Tennesseans Is Going to Suffer’

Health officials in Nashville, Tennessee are warning about the impact of Health & Human Services cuts to their share of the $11 billion in grant funding, reports The Tennessean:

“The health of Tennesseans matters. Without these funds, the health of Tennesseans is going to suffer,” said D’Yuanna Allen-Robb, Nashville’s Maternal Child and Adolescent Health Division Director.

In Nashville, an evidence-based pregnancy support program Allen-Robb oversees could be decimated by the cuts.

Nashville Strong Babies was first developed in 2019 to provide intervention services in seven neighborhoods in the city identified as the highest risk for things like infant mortality, low birth rate and maternal health complications.

The program was initially funded through a longstanding federal infant mortality intervention fund, Allen-Robb said. The initiative began serving nearly 500 families and flourished, with 92% of the babies born full-term and 96% born at a healthy birth rate in the Strong Babies program, outpacing the average rates for Nashville as a whole.