National Center for Farmworker Health
info@ncfh.org
1770 FM 967 • Buda, TX 78610
(512) 312-2700
(800) 531-5120
fax (512) 312-2600

Birth on the Border : The Brownsville Community Health Center

Author: Gilson, George J.
Date Published: 1987


Brownsville, at the southern tip of Texas and the United States, is a unique community. It is part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, a subtropical area of irrigated farmlands separated from the rest of Texas by 200 miles of the King Ranch, the country's largest ranch. Culturally, this area is more like neighboring Mexico than the rest of Texas. Eighty-five percent of the inhabitants have an Hispanic surname. According to the 1980 census, 41 percent of the population lives below the federal poverty guidelines--a figure that is probably much higher since the devaluation of the Mexican peso and the killer citrus freeze of 1982. Average income in our country in 1980 was $4,346 a year. Even though over 500,000 people live on the U.S. side of the river within fifty miles of Brownsville, there is not public hospital that serves the indigent. Birth is not considered an illness, but it does carry significant risks, especially among poor women. 43 percent of the births in this county occur outside the hospital setting. Not surprisingly, medical records indicate that infant mortality is over twice that recorded for the U.S. as a whole and there are many babies that die unrecorded and have a "shoe box" burial. It is this situation which the Brownsville Community Health Center (BCHC) is trying to address.

Price: free
Number of Pages: 5