American Infant Mortality

When looking at infant mortality rates in the lowest class evidence shows that double the amount of babies die in comparison to the highest class this can be linked to poverty the poorer you are the worse your chances are even at birth. These following factors increase the risk of infant death; the age of the mother aged less than 18 years is the highest and the lowest for mothers between 30 and 34. With the high teenage pregnancy epidemic and women from lower social class background the most at risk from losing their baby.

Child health inequalities were first explored in the 19th century, with regards to the differences in infant mortality rates within the social classes (Woolfenden et al., 2013). Early childhood development as a social determinant is now described as the factors and environments that can influence development and lifelong health and wellbeing (Maggi et al., 2010). These factors interact with one another and include; social interactions, physical environment, living conditions, learning environments and socio-political context (Maggi et al., 2010).

According to Emily B. Zimmerman, Steven H. Woolf, and Amber Haley, “In the United States, the gradient in health outcomes by educational attainment has steepened over the last four decades, in all regions of the United States, producing a larger gap in health status between Americans with high and low education”. Emphasizing strong education and health systems are crucial for economic expansion. People with lower education obtain higher risk jobs possibly threatening their health.Families with a higher income have more access to healthier food and health services. Higher income does not always mean improved health nevertheless in developing countries shown improved health due to access to health education. Teaching developing countries about appropriate medical care while being surrounded by unclean water, low level of sanitation and the minimal food is crucial to improving global health.

Average natality rate for a developing country usually tend to be higher than developed countries. This is largely because women in developed countries are more likely to have careers and lifestyles that make it less convenient to have them. Infant mortality rate is the measure of deaths of children that are less than a year old. There are numerous of factors that impact this rate including the mother's level of education, environmental conditions, and political and medical infrastructure. Improving sanitation, access to clean drinking water, immunization against infectious diseases, and other public health measures can help reduce high rates of infant

“A girl born today can expect to live for more than 80 years if she is born in some countries – but less than 45 years if she is born in others” (Commission on Social Determinants of Health [CSDH], 2008, p. iii). This startling statistic is found in the introduction to the report by the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) on the impact of certain inequities on people’s health throughout the world. These inequities, referred to as the social determinants of health (SDOH), are the social and economic conditions in the environment in which people are born, live, work and play. A key finding in this report is that these dramatic differences in health are not just confined to the poorest, most socially disadvantaged countries. The CDSH also found that the health of people in all countries follow a social gradient, meaning that people with the lowest socioeconomic (SES) status were found to have the poorest health regardless of the country they live in (CSDH, 2008).

More than half of the Australian adults rate their health as excellent or very good. When comparing the Australia with other developed nations, Australia performs strongly across many important health indicators. When considering about the life expectancy of the Australian women, it is in the third highest globally. Death rates in Australia have decreased in over the last two decades for both males and females in all age groups. Infant mortality plays an important indicator for the general health and wellbeing of a population. Over the last two decades, infant mortality rate was high for both males and females, but between 1991- 2010 it both declined up to a significant amount. Despite from positive signs, there are high numbers of over-weight

The article I reviewed was about the low infant mortality and low birth rates of Mexican American and Latina mothers. According to the article, infant mortality rate is used to judge the quality of health in a population. Even though the majority of Latinos and Mexican Americans are less educated and are living in poverty, the infant mortality rate, as well as the low birth weight, is remarkably low. When compared to African Americans, Mexican Americans had the lowest amount of low birth weight babies (Magana, A., & Clark, N. M. (1995)). “Despite similar socioeconomic profiles, infant mortality among Mexican Americans (8/1000 live births) is less than half that of African Americans (18/1000 live births)

Social Determinants of Health Q1. The mortality rate for children under 5 years in Africa among twelve countries indicate that the “mortality went high in 1990 by 52% in Botswana and Zimba 43%, according to Michael Marmot, and 75% of child mortality in Iraq. The classification of a household for child mortality is varies among countries. The child mortality is the highest among countries within the poorest household, and also there is the higher level of socioeconomic of the household lower mortality rate. In Africa” (Marmot 2005)

These are defined as the conditions in which people work, play, grow, live that affect wide range of health and quality of life. The determinants like socio-economic status, race, ethnicity, social capital, behavioral factors (e.g., tobacco use, maternal smoking), biological and psychosocial factors (e.g., family and peer social support) which greatly affects the inequalities among minorities in infant mortality and birth outcomes (Kim, 2013). In order to understand the social determinants impacting infant mortality and birth outcomes, it is important to understand the conceptual framework of societal to individual level determinants of infant mortality and birth outcomes. Conceptual framework includes identifying social determinants at mirco, meso and macro levels. This in turn will help in interpreting patterns of disparities in infant mortality and birth outcomes among blacks. Social conditions consists of where people work, play, age, born, live etc. which depends on their race, ethnicity, gender, social capital, socio-economic status. Macroeconomic determinants include income inequality, which directly affect the infant mortality rates. Income inequality means household income and unemployment for women. In order to reduce the incidences of infant mortality, reducing the income inequalities and generating employment and increasing economic growth among women of childbearing age will help to achieve the desired outcome. Access to prenatal care also influenced by social

A third determinant of high infant mortality rate is whether the mother is educated or not. Plenty of studies have found that low education levels can lead to poor pregnancy outcomes such as infant mortality (Loggins & Andrade, 2014). However, although the attainment of education for blacks increased, the infant mortality rate still declined at a slower rate compared to those whites that had an education attainment increased (Loggins & Andrade, 2014). This could mean that it is not solely one determinant that impacts infant mortality. Each determinant combined can have a contributing factor towards infant mortality.

US New and World Report state that 43 percent of American women will have an abortion in their lifetime. In America abortion is as common as divorce and three times more common than breast cancer. Twice as many women get abortions as complete college degrees. There are approximately 1.4 million abortions performed each year in the United States with 89 percent of these prior to the twelfth week of gestation (Waldman, Ackermann and Rubin). Of the abortions performed 44 percent of the women will have had previous abortions and 82% are unmarried or separated (Cummings).

Around the world, 830 women die every day from preventable complications during pregnancy and delivery (“Maternal mortality” 1). A death during a pregnancy or within 42 days of delivery is referred to as a maternal death (Semba and Bloem 34). The issue of maternal death in developing countries is an often unaddressed and urgent need. Things like poverty, a lack of access to quality healthcare, and cultural practices are causing maternal mortality rates in developing countries to be unnecessarily high (“Leading and underlying causes of maternal mortality” 1). Mothers in developing countries are needlessly dying, but organizations like Delivering Hope International (DHI) have heard their cry and rushed to provide the tools and care these women so desperately need.

Infant mortality is the death of a child that is less than one year of age. Infant mortality rates are measured by the number of deaths in infants per number of live births. Infants are usually up to that age of one year. The health outcomes of a pregnancy is mainly influenced by a woman's health. Other risk factors include race, ethnicity, age, and income. Socioeconomic status and geographic location are major influences for infant mortality of a child. Most babies that die before their first year can be because they are born with a serious defect, is a preterm birth (Born too small or too early/37 weeks), infections, affected by maternal complications of pregnancy, victims of injuries and victims of sudden infant death syndrome also known as SIDS. National Vital Statistics Reports studied the infant mortality rates for the top five leading causes of infant death from 2005 to 2009. The top five leading causes were congenital malformations, preterm birth or low birth weight, SIDS, maternal complications, and unintentional injuries. Congenital malformations had the biggest decrease from 2005 to 2009 while the other four causes decreased only a little bit or not at all. National Vital Statistics Reports also studied infant mortality rates, by the race and ethnicity of the mother in the United States from 2005 to 2009. The infant mortality rate for each race and ethnicity of the mothers decreased from 2005 to 2009. The non-Hispanic blacks had the highest infant mortality rate

Another component to the increased risk of perinatal deaths is the inability of the mother to have access to pre-pregnancy and pregnancy care to improve neonatal and perinatal mortality. A study

In our society Infant mortality is a huge issue stopping us from moving forward collectively. Social Reproduction is a theory proposed by Karl Marx claiming that inequalities are social reproduced from generation to generation. This supports the idea that those born into a lower class have a higher chance of become ill. Infant mortality is a huge issue in countries like America because instead of suffering from hunger and starvation. They suffer from idea that families can afford healthy groceries instead they are made to buy cheap fast food to get by each day. This affects the children’s health the most because they are in need for the right healthy foods to help them from getting disease like type 2 diabetes and obesity. In other countries around the world, Infant mortality is caused by malnutrition and starvation because the families can’t feed the mother to breastfeed the infants who are vulnerable. Childhood malnutrition is the biggest contributor to all death among children younger than 3 it accounts for almost 35 percent (Huber, 2012). According to World Health Organization, the most important solution to stop this would be the access for immediate and exclusive breastfeeding. We need to implement different policies to help make baby formula and medicine cheaper for children in need. We also can lower infant mortality by educating mothers and local health workers to help eradicate simple things such as malnutrition and disease.