Dallas County has received more federal support to address racial and ethnic disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes.
Dallas County Health and Human Services is getting more than $300,000 in additional funding for its , which provides prenatal, maternal, postpartum and infant care 鈥� with the goal of improving health outcomes for both pregnant people and infants.
DCHSS director Dr. Philip Huang said the funding will help expand what the county offers.
"We'll be doing more educational classes, some of these home visits and assessing what are ways that we can support optimal maternal and child health,鈥� Huang said.
In Texas, Black pregnant people are twice as likely to die than their white counterparts, according to state data. And in Dallas, Black infants are premature or at a low birth weight than babies of all other races.
Huang said infant and maternal mortality and morbidity are 鈥渧ery preventable鈥� when people have resources available to them.
The funding will be directed towards areas of the county with higher mortality rates, like South Dallas.
鈥淲hen we applied for the funding, we needed to document that there were ... high infant mortality rate problems in some of these areas,鈥� Huang said.
DCHHS took a data-driven approach to determine different zip codes to focus on. It also collaborated with Parkland Health, Dallas County鈥檚 public hospital, to ensure the organizations don鈥檛 overlap in their efforts.
Federally funded programs, like Healthy Start, are vital to the county鈥檚 ability to provide services and programs, according to Huang.
The county received a total of more than $1 million in Healthy Start funding in fiscal year 2025. Huang said the continuation of federal funding streams is critical.
鈥淲e鈥檙e very dependent on them,鈥� Huang said. 鈥淭he whole community is dependent on them to do really important programs like this.鈥�
The county doesn鈥檛 have control over the continuation of federal funding, but Huang said the department is trying to do everything it can with the funding it does have.
Abigail Ruhman is 四虎影院鈥檚 health reporter. Got a tip? Email Abigail at aruhman@kera.org.
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