YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County commissioners on Thursday applauded the work of the Women, Infants and Children program in Mahoning County on the 50th anniversary of the program that provides nutritional support and education in a community with one of the highest infant mortality rates in the state.

Ryan Tekac, Mahoning County Public Health’s health commissioner, said WIC “is here to improve infant mortality,” and it combats low birth weights. He said it is an “evidence-based program designed to support maternal and child health with nutritious foods; education; breastfeeding support, which is very important; as well as referral to other health programs.”

The Ohio Department of Health’s 2020 Infant Mortality Annual Report indicates that Mahoning County’s infant mortality rate in 2020 was 8.7, which is among the highest rates among larger counties in Ohio. Mahoning County had 20 infant deaths out of 2,310 births in the county. Lucas (11.2) and Scioto (12.7) counties had higher rates.

Mahoning’s rate was higher than other urban counties such as Cuyahoga (7.7), Hamilton (7.5), Montgomery (8.4) and Franklin (6.7).

The data did not give the infant mortality rates for most of the counties in Ohio on the grounds that those counties had fewer than 20 infant deaths, and having fewer than 20 was reason for caution in interpreting the data, according to the report.

Having fewer than 10 deaths meant the data did not meet “standards of reliability or precision,” and the rate was therefore suppressed from the data.

Trumbull County’s rate was given as 5.5, but there were 11 infant deaths out of 1,992 births in 2020, meaning the data did not meet “standards of reliability or precision.”

WIC has offices in Austintown, Boardman, the county’s Oak Hill building in Youngstown and a satellite office in Goshen Township. WIC has 15 employees and is federally funded. It served 3,761 clients in Mahoning County last year, Tekac said.

WIC “improves the diet of moms and babies,” Tekac said. Children in WIC “demonstrate improved developmental skills, Tekac said.

Daljeet Dhillon, the health department’s WIC director, said the “core of the program is supporting the women who are in poverty and trying to have better outcomes when the babies are born. We are one of the counties in Ohio that has the highest rate of infant mortality. I always say the WIC program is a gateway,” helping to “channel them to whatever service they need.”

“Sometimes we see women who will not even go to the doctor and (say) they are pregnant. But they will come to us if their infant or child is already in the program,” she said. “So they will share with you that they are pregnant so we can channel them so they have children who are healthier.

In this community we all know we do not have enough (obstetricians-gynecologists). It’s almost a (medical) desert. Programs like this sort catch these women,” Dhillon said.

It is “nerve-wracking every day” to watch the news and wonder if Congress is going to cut funding for WIC, she said. She thanked the commissioners for their help in hosting a breastfeeding workshop about a year ago.

Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti said she remembers when WIC started in 1974. It was needed then, “And we still need more of it now,” she said. “This isn’t a glamorous issue, so we back burner it,” she said of legislators in Washington and elsewhere. “These are things that affect our people here in the Valley, in the city, all over the county.”

“For Mahoning County to be a part of Ohio with the worst numbers, our government is not serving all of our people,” she said.

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