low birthweight

July 27, 2012 -- The Curry County Public Health Department is trying to make a difference in improving the health of newborn babies. Statewide, of the 45,596 babies born, approximately 6.3 percent had a low birth weight. Although those numbers were considerably lower in Curry County -- only seven out of the 180 babies born that year had a low birth weight – Jan Kaplan, director of Curry County Public Health, believes that figure is still too high. “We want to keep those trends where they are, but it can always be improved.”

Success is attributed to the clinic's ability to provide wrap around health and social services to its clients