Women's health conference in Hempstead

Three health organizations are leading an initiative Friday to educate Hempstead Village residents about pregnancy and newborn health.

The free women’s conference, “On the Road to a Healthy Start: Tomorrow’s Healthy Babies Begin with Today's Healthy Women,” is being hosted by the Nassau County Department of Health Perinatal Services Network, Downstate New York Healthy Start and the March of Dimes.

The event will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m at the Antioch Baptist Church, 94 James L.L. Burrell Ave., Hempstead. The conference, funded by an award from the March of Dimes, will be in English and Spanish.

Workshops will cover such topics as Taking Care of Your Pregnancy, A Healthy Woman: Mind, Body and Spirit (preconception health), Eating Smart, The Blues. Breakfast and lunch will be served.

The conference is meant to bring awareness to the village’s high rates of premature births, low-weight births and infant mortalities, officials said. Infant mortality is the death of an infant within the first year of life.

Mayor Wayne J. Hall Sr. said the rate of infant mortality in the village has decreased in the past decade, “but I believe we have the ability to reduce that number even further with the help of these organizations.”

For more information and to register, call Kirstin Hotzler at 516-227-9456.