Elkhart County is working hard to lower infant death and maternal mortality rates.

Mothers need life-saving resources in order to fight back against Indiana’s mortality rate for newborns and their mothers, which is one of the highest in the nation.

The League of Women Voters held a seminar at Ivy Tech in Goshen with staff from the Elkhart County Health Department’s Healthy Beginnings program. Their experts say a number of these deaths can be attributed to safe sleep issues, and they are working on educating new parents on how to avoid them, how to identify birth defects, and more. Substance abuse issues have also made Indiana’s maternal mortality the third highest in the nation.