The Los Angeles County African American Infant and Maternal Mortality (AAIMM) Prevention Initiative is a coalition of the Department of Public Health in partnership with First 5 LA and the LA County Department of Health Services, Department of Mental Health, community organizations, mental and health care providers, funders, and community members. We are united in one purpose: to address the unacceptably high rates of Black infant and maternal deaths countywide and ensure healthy and joyous births for Black families in LA County. Through a series of comprehensive coordinated strategies, we aim to reduce the gap in infant mortality rates by 30% by 2023.

The AAIMM Prevention Initiative approaches its work from a frame that the root cause of the problem is the stress caused by a Black person’s exposure to racism and the impact of that stress on a Black woman/