Milwaukee’s 53209 zip code, which includes the neighborhoods of Menomonee River Parkway and Rufus King, saw 235 fewer births in 2025 than 2019. The neighboring 53218 zip code logged 182 fewer births, and the 53225 zip code, 134 fewer in the same time period. Most other neighborhoods saw declines below 100 births.

Dalvery Blackwell, president and founder of the African American Breastfeeding Network, said while affordability is a struggle for young families citywide, Black families face the largest barriers. The Breastfeeding Network works to decrease the Black maternal and infant mortality rate in Milwaukee, including by training doulas to support people of color through their pregnancies and births.

“The disparities are higher than any other ethnic group when we look at Black families being able to access quality health care, childcare or even housing,” Blackwell said. “The resources are just not available in large part due to systemic racism and social economic inequalities.”

In addition to decades of research, Blackwell’s assessments have been borne out in recent history: In the past few years, the north side has seen several grocery stores, a pediatric doctor’s office and a youth food program all shutter. All five of the Milwaukee Public Schools recently selected for potential permanent closure are clustered on the north side, though Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said she isn’t ready to recommend those schools for closure this fall.

Parents look for community despite social isolation

As births decline, those who do chose to have kids in the Milwaukee area say early parenthood can be stressful, anxiety-inducing and – above all in a post-pandemic world – lonely.

In March 2020, Heather Puente, health officer for the Cudahy Health Department, had just come back from maternity leave with her second child.

“COVID hits, and I was still breastfeeding,” Puente said. “I was pumping, coming home and showering before I could even see the kids or hold my baby. It was one of the honestly worst times that I can think of.”

With her first baby, Puente said she leaned on support groups and free resources for moms through local hospitals, but these these support systems have been diminishing, notably in Cudahy and Milwaukee’s south side. In 2022, Ascension St. Francis Hospital closed its labor and delivery unit.

In the absence of larger support systems, some parents are working to create and provide their own free resources for young families. Puente is a board member for Park Pals WI, a Milwaukee-area nonprofit organizing free programming to children and their families, in hopes of connecting both kids and parents with one another.

A need for connection is also what drove Mequon resident Stephanie Ciatti to start Babbling Babes MKE, a social club for moms across the Milwaukee area. When pregnant with her third child, Ciatti said she “made a vow” to herself to start visiting the coffee shops, stores and restaurants she had loved before becoming a mom but began to feel inaccessible with small children.

Going with a group of other parents made the experience less intimidating, she said. These gatherings have also become a space for moms to connect over their struggles with limited maternity leave, postpartum support and other challenges of raising kids in the city.

“We need to do a better job nurturing those moms in the first year of life when isolation is so high, especially with winters in Wisconsin,” Ciatti said. “If you really lay out the facts, the support does not equal what these women are going through.”