Infant Mortality : An Important Indicator Of A Nation 's Health

The health of a nation plays an integral part in the overall success and economic well being of a particular country. The United Stated, while pouring more money into the healthcare system than any other country, still stands as a broken system with inadequate care for many citizens. One of the most marginalized groups of people, African American women, continually score alarmingly low on basic measures of overall health. The healthcare discrepancies between white and black women in the United States are alarming, and they reveal flaws in the American health care system as a whole.

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.

In the US, black women are over three times more likely to die from maternally related complications than white women, and their babies are less likely to survive their first year (Oparah & Bonparte, 2015). Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy and Childbirth, edited by Julia Chineyere Oparah and Alicia D. Bonaparte tells the stories, experiences, oppression, and subjection of black women in the maternal health care system. Each chapter in the book explained a certain key point in the experience of black women and the health care system. In the following, I will discuss how the medical industrial complex or the introduction of medical treatments has not only stripped women of color, trans women, poor and immigrant women of their autonomy, but has sustained the hierarchy of patriarchy in the health system.

“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).

One important health disparity is the lack of prenatal care amongst women in socially disadvantaged populations. These predominately include women of minorities, women who have a low income, and the location these women live in. This health disparity is important to address because research has shown that women who receive prenatal care are more likely to conceive babies of a healthy birth weight and have low infant mortality rates than those women who do not receive this prenatal care ("Putting Women 's Health Disparities on the Map," 2009). Therefore, health disparities amongst women in need of prenatal care have lead to preventable infant mortalities amongst women in vulnerable populations. Three reasons why this health disparity is important to address include the following: health disparities in prenatal care lead to lack of access to prenatal care to women in vulnerable populations, there are increased adverse health outcomes for both the infant and mother, and there are excess medical expenses that could otherwise have been prevented. Because “prematurity is the leading cause of newborn death in the United States” (“Healthy Mothers and Healthy babies,” 2013), finding and developing a solution will be extremely beneficial and needs to begin with addressing prenatal care.

Major disparities continue to exist in spite of America’s “Affordable Care Act”, Although minorities suffer disease five times greater than the rest of the nation, minorities represent the majority of the disparity. Infant Mortality has always been America’s indicator as to the state of the countries health status. America is one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations in the world, However, America ranks number 24th in the world for infant mortality. Puerto Rican and Indian women rank highest among ethnic classes with low infant mortality rates. Some researchers have found lack of prenatal access as the key contributing factor to low mortality and birth weights among these two ethnic classes.

Premature birth is an important public health priority in terms of health of women and infants. Every year an estimated 15 million preterm babies are born and this number is still rising (WHO, 2015).In 2014, 1 of every 10 babies born in United States were premature and black infants were 50% more likely to be born premature than white, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific islander infants (CDC,2015). Almost 1 million children die each year due to complications of premature birth (WHO, 2015). Major survivors face lifelong disabilities like learning disabilities, hearing, visual, feeding, digestive, breathing and respiratory problems (CDC, 2015) and low birth weight (March of Dimes, 2014). A major challenge in decreasing the rate of preterm birth is

Racial and ethnic health disparities have been a topic on the rise as of late. According to Flores (2010), little attention has been shown to ethic and racial health disparities in children. For example, only 5 of 103 studies in the Institute of Medicine's extensive review any findings, studies, or literature address health disparities of racial or ethnic issues dealing with children (Flores, 2010). These disparities are and persistent, and happen across the many categories of health and health care. The objective of this study was to review as many off the published literatures on these racial and ethnic health disparities.

Health disparities can start as early as within the womb. White women are twice as likely to access prenatal care in the first few months of pregnancy than minority women. Hispanic mothers are 2.5 times more likely to not receive any type of prenatal care compared to white mothers. African American women have the highest infant mortality rate in the country. They are twice as likely to have an infant die than white women. African American babies are four times more likely to die from

Discuss disparities related to ethnic and cultural groups relative to low birth weight infants and preterm births.

The black infant mortality rate in 2010, (11.8) was similar to the white infant mortality rate in 1980 (11.7); an unbelievable thirty year difference for a balance measure (Florida Vital Statistics Annual Report, 2012). Currently, in the local community of Orange County, Florida the infant mortality rate exceeds that of the US at 7.5, and the rate is also doubled in African American women at 13.5, wheres it is 5.6 for births by white women (Florida Charts, 2014). Per Florida Charts (2014), disorders related to short gestation (pre-term birth – less than 37 weeks of pregnancy) and low birth weight, followed by sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) are the leading causes of infant deaths in African American births in Orange County, which is relative to the rest of the

The mortality rate has been high in the region but in the past ten years there has been a notable decrease in birth rate. This has however not affected the population growth of the area. The Chicago pregnant mothers have smoking habits which is one of the causes of the decrease in the birth rate. Generally the area recorded a decrease in the infant mortality rate. It decreased from 7.6 in 2003 to 7.3 infants’ death less than 1 year of age per 1,000 live births in 2004. This represents the second lowest record in the United States according to Illinois Centre for Health Statistics, a division of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH). According to the report, the infant mortality rate decreased by 4.6 per cent between 2003 and 2004 and at the same period the birth rate decreased by 0.9 percent. This was due to the fall in the number of the total births in the area. However, there was a decrease in the mortality rate in the state during this period due to the effects of the neonatal period. The neonatal mortality rate decreased from 6.5 to 5.4 percent between 2003 and 2004 while the postnatal mortality rate increased from 3.1to 3.0 between the same periods (2003-2004). The infant mortality rate recorded a larger decline among the blacks compared to the whites, that is, 15.6 in 2003 to 14.8 in 2004 (Sinai Urban Health

With respect to black women in particular Geronimus' "weather" hypothesis suggests that chronic stress created by deprivation of rights, racism and social and economic disadvantage leads to more rapid declines in early health in adulthood, among black women than white women in the United States. Work focused on physiological stress pathways highlights how time can cause faster biological aging, thus putting women at risk of adverse birth outcomes, including SGA newborns before they are pregnant. Physiological dis-regulation induced by chronic exposure stress can lead to excess cortisol, a hormone and corticotropin releasing, which can retard fetal growth. In addition, the metabolic processes in circulating maternal cardiovascular dysfunction

There were many new regulations put in place by the Department of Health and Human Services as well as the Centers for Disease Control and other government agencies. These included changes in how medical students were educated to care for minority patients and in how doctors were expected to treat all patients. Even with all the attention and concern paid to this issue, health disparities continue to exist and in some cases to increase. Research shows that disparities continue to exist today even when people have a good income and health insurance ( http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/health-disparities-overview.aspx). Some of the differences between minorities are in areas of infant deaths, life expectancy and number of chronic diseases. The research shows that black babies are one to three

8oz. and were thus considered low birth weight births. Preterm births increased from 9.4% in 1984 to 11% in 1993(as cited in MCN, 1998). African Americans had low birth weights that more than doubled those of whites and very low birth weights were three times higher. Many of the low birth weight births resulted in death. According to the National Vital Statistics Report, the figures for the United States from 1998 are as follows: