Infant Mortality : An Important Factor For Determining The Health Of A Nation

She believed that men were at fault for her stillborn children and continued to use the same birthing techniques (Smith 65). For her eleventh pregnancy, she went to a hospital and had a doctor deliver the baby, and for the first time the child lived (Smith 438). Sissy’s abundance of stillbirths may be due to the fact that, “Women who’ve already had one stillbirth have a four times higher risk of having another stillbirth compared to women who’ve had a live birth” (Reinberg par 1). Along with stillbirths, there were also high numbers of infant mortalities in the early 1900s (Louis par 6). Doctors did not know the causes of stillbirths and instead focused on preventing infant mortality (Louis par 6). Due to the lack of knowledge concerning stillbirths, they were a common occurrence (Louis par 7). In 1909, about one hundred seven out every one thousand children died (Pryce par 1). Researchers now know that the leading causes of stillbirths and infant mortality and the turn of the twentieth century were poor environment, diet, and hygiene due to poverty (Pryce par 2). Sissy’s poverty and previous stillbirths provide evidence that Betty Smith accurately described infant mortality and stillbirth in the early twentieth century in A Tree Grows in

Poor people were the largest amount of sufferers with small pox, polio, tuberculosis and cholera as they were unable to pay for the treatment due to the little money they had however rich people were able to afford treatment and were more likely to live longer. Squalor was for families living in homes that were too small for them and their needs. Families were made to share water facilities and the homes were difficult to keep clean. This led to infections or contagious diseases that would spread quickly around the families. People in the 21st Century still live in squalor but Beveridge could not come up with a neat administrative plan for supplementing the cost of housing. Ignorance meant people were without knowledge to make their lives better in simple ways as well as more complicated efforts. The school leaving age was 15 but children were allowed to leave at 14 under special circumstances. They did not think that an extra year would make much difference but it was thought that people who attended school longer would obtain greater skills. Reading and writing as not seen as important as people were working in factories and it was not a skill that would be used in that type of

Robin Yates’s paper, “Pregnancy and Childbirth, The 1800’s vs. Now: What to Expect When You’re Not Expecting,” was filled with many clear points on the advancement of labor and medicine since the 1800s. This essay was filled with interesting and grabbing facts; however, the structure of the essay needs more support.

Infant mortality rate constitutes the death of a baby before their first birthday. Mortality rates around the world differ tremendously with America leading the first world countries at an alarming rate of 6.1 deaths per 1,000 births. Conversely, Finland and Japan secure the last, most desirable position, with deaths totaling 2.3 per 1,000 births, as of 2010. (Ovaska-Few, 2015) In 2014, over 23,000 babies died in the United States. (CDC, 2016) Exploring the mortality rates in America brings light to a dire need for additional interventions and research as to why this developing nation has the highest rate of infant deaths before the age of 1 year old. African Americans face the worst outcomes of infant death compared to whites, Latino, and their Native American peers in North Carolina. (Ovaska-Few, 2015) This paper will explore why African American are the leading race for infant mortality and the steps that health communities need to take to address this devastating occurrence.

The first issue that the Children’s Bureau focused on was infant and maternal death. This was a problem because there were not any standards for how a baby was supposed to be delivered. Prenatal and postnatal care were also not well-known; therefore, many mothers did not receive the care that they needed to make sure they were doing well before and after birthing a child. There are not many statistics that show how many infants and mothers died each year due to the little to no standards that were in place at the time, but about one in ten infants died within the first year of their life (“The story of..”). Julia Lathrop was the director of the Children’s Bureau. She was the person who brought the infant and maternal deaths issue to light.

The Birth Control Movement of 1912 in the United States had a significant impact on Women’s Reproductive Rights. Women in the 1800s would frequently die or have complications during or after childbirth. Even if the woman would have died, they would still have a great amount of children. As the years progressed into the 1900s, the amount of children being born dropped. Because of this, birth control supplements were banned, forcing women to have a child that she was not prepared for or did not want to have in the first place.

“Compared with European Americans, African American infants experience disproportionately high rates of low birth weight (LBW) and preterm delivery and are more than twice as likely to die during their 1st year of life”(Giscombé, C. L., & Lobel, M., 2005). The infant mortality rate for African Americans is 13.7 deaths per 1000 live births, more than twice the rate (5.7) for White Americans in the U.S. (Kung, Hoyert, Xu, & Murphy, 2008). A lot of the racial disparity in infant mortality can be explained by low birthweight and preterm delivery, which are also disproportionately and often experienced by African Americans (Martin et al., 2007).

The Progressive Era was a period of social and political reform beginning in the post Gilded Age 19th century and lasting through WWI. Industrial and urban growth of early 19th century America while representative of opportunity and future advancement simultaneously posed many difficulties for working class citizens. Prior concerns over the conditions of working class citizens were multiplied and magnified by overpopulated and impoverished urban communities. During this era many new Progressive agendas were introduced with the goal of reforming dated and unregulated policies, the most prominent of these, the birth control movement. The documents from chapter six of Constructing the American Past show that at its core, the birth control

The Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Act was passed by Congress in 1921. This enactment initially proposed in 1918 had an approach to battle newborn child mortality. This act assigned assets to those states for the establishment of child welfare and child hygiene offices, and was the "primary government push to build up a MCH infrastructure inside the states" (Kotch, 2013, p. 15). With the usage of this demonstration, numerous maternal and child well-being focuses were set up, a significant number of which kept on working after the Sheppard-Towner Act was relinquished in

During the nineteenth century Britain was facing a Public Health crisis and was in dire need of new sanitary reforms. There was a problem with Britain’s vast rise in population, diseases, housing conditions and governmental issues all being faced during this era. Living conditions through the nineteenth century was unimaginable (Clark, G. 2005). This was the era of the big industrial revolution.

The Industrialization of America brought about improved transportation, manufacturing systems, and new job opportunities. The prospect of fortune led to an influx of immigrants, which in 1907 alone saw 1.2 million immigrants enter the United States and settle along the major cities on the East Coast (Chiodo & Meliza, 2014). The growing number of immigrants coming to America led to over crowdedness, and poor living conditions. The unhygienic living conditions and meager health care led to early deaths of working parents, leaving a growing number of orphaned or abandoned children behind.

? In the 1900’s the major cause of death in America was pneumonia, tuberculosis (TB), and diarrhea and enteritis which is known today as diphtheria. These infectious diseases was the cause of 1/3 of deaths in America. The population shift in the 1900’s with lots of immigration which led to major over -crowding in poor housing areas and cities. There was also the non- existence of public water and or waste disposal systems that we have today. This type of environment led to continuous outbreaks of infectious diseases like tuberculous, influenza, yellow fever and malaria to name a few. People were getting sick and dying by the millions, there was epidemics everywhere. Federal and State’s labored to make better the sanitation and hygiene of

In the early twentieth century, the low to middle class women of the United States were burdened with frequent pregnancies often ending

Certainly, health care services in the United States are a controversial topic. In 1900, the child welfare movement made an impact on public health as well as in child health care. Public health helped to catch infectious diseases and many other family conditions. Accordingly, the government established a national public health infrastructure. Indeed, hospitals, medical schools and research laboratory creation made a difference in children’s health. In fact, the government commitment was to prevent the infant and child’s mortality. Later, the government expands health programs. It determined the formation of health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Indeed, the government mandated Early and Periodic Screening for children. Then, the United States government established the State Children’s Insurance Programs (SCHIP). However, more services should to be offered to support the children’s wellbeing. Health care insurance must offer full cover services to each child in the United States. This way, children’s illnesses will be treated effectively (Howard & Golden, 2017).

In the twenty-first century the thought of a child coming into the world is often a pleasant one with little worry in mind. However, in the 1800’s this was likely not the case. The chances of death for the mother-to-be greatly exceed the maternal mortality rates of the modern era. In fact, the odds of a birthing mother perishing in childbirth were so high that “… in some 19th-century American lying-in hospitals, the mortality rate approached nearly 700 out of every 10,000 births…” (Borst). With this statistic in mind, there should be little surprise that Cherokee Sal from Bret Harte’s short story, Luck of Roaring Camp, died within an hour of birthing her son (Harte). Her manner of death portrays the ugly reality of not only the time period,