Thesis on Infant Mortality

Health care of children is an important goal to shaping their long term well-being and also reducing inequalities.

Regional School Unit (RSU) #64 is comprised of an elementary, middle and high school within a small rural community in the town of Corinth, ME. This community is largely supported by agriculture and local business. However, it is about 20 miles from Bangor, ME, the closest city with numerous resources. Unfortunately, this distance restricts Corinth residents with a lack of transportation from having access to these resources. Inadequate knowledge and awareness of health care promotion and prevention methods also have adverse results on community health. Whether the resource be obtaining a pair of glasses or medication from a pharmacy, even the seemingly effortless tasks can present challenges and go to show that members of this community suffer disparity due to their rural location.

associations in a pathway model connecting race-based discrimination, stress, and negative preterm birth outcomes in African American women.

Maternal mortality represents more than the loss of lives for individual women, as it also reflects the larger value and prioritization of women 's health and threatens the health and survival of families, young children, and even the communities in which they live (Royston and Armstrong, 1989). Maternal mortality is unacceptably high (WHO, 2015b). Globally, approximately 830 women die every day from pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications (ibid.). The causes of maternal mortality are predominately preventable and can be classified into three fundamental causes: (1) medical - consisting of direct medical problems and pre-existent/coexistent medical problems that are aggravated by pregnancy, (2) underlying - social and legal conditions, and (3) health systems laws and policies that address availability, accessibility, and quality of reproductive health services (PHP et al, 2011).

Herein I briefly overview the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) within the United States. Initially, I discuss specific causes of infant death and then, contributing factors which put babies at risk. Next, the distribution of various IMR is surveyed on a state to state basis. States possessing the ten highest infant mortality rates are discussed, including possible reasons for higher IMR. In addition, those states with the ten lowest IMR are mentioned. In conclusion, I consider preventative measures for minimizing the number of babies that die each year.

Black R E., Cousens S., Johnson, H. L., Lawn, J. E., Rudan, I., Bassani, D. G., Jha, P., Campbell, H., Walker, C.F, and Cibulskis, R (2010) Global, regional and national causes of child mortality; a systematic analysis. Lancet 375 (9730); 1969-1987.

Infant mortality rates for African American women are two times higher than any other race in the United States. It is thought that socioeconomic status and low education among the African American population is the main factor in this issue, but it is not. Studies show that as an African American woman in the U.S., childbearing health is affected due to the unequal treatment in American society.

Approximately 740,000 women per year use at least one illegal substance during their pregnancy (“Birth Defect Statistics”). These substances can range from marijuana to cocaine. Premature birth is defined as the birth of a child on or before thirty-seven weeks of pregnancy. There are around 500,000 premature births per year (“Preterm Birth”). It is hard to directly correlate premature birth solely to drug use, since most women that use illicit drugs during their pregnancy also smoke and drink. However, a recent study shows that around sixteen percent of women that only use drugs during pregnancy have given birth to a premature infant, and these are only the women that admitted to using these drugs (“Causes and Risk Factors”). Negative effects

Sometimes a baby who seems healthy passes away during sleep. No parent wants to wake up and find their infant not breathing. Sudden Infant Death disorder (SIDS) is one of the leading causes for death among newborn children one month to one year of age. Taking the lives of around 2,500 Infants every year in the United States. An extra 3,500 babies pass on every year from different reasons for sudden and surprising newborn child demise (SUID, or, suffocation). Sudden infant death is a tragic event for any parent or caregiver, and is no one's fault. SIDS can happen even when everything done right.

I chose this topic because 70% of our patients that come into our hospital are the African-American community. Infant mortality in this community is higher compared to others. My paper is geared towards to the improvement of infant mortality and have come up with several approaches to this problem. First and foremost the rate of pregnancies

The researchers in this study collected and used data from the 1997-2005 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) for this research analysis. The NHIS is conducted annually and is a multistage probability sample survey of the US civilian, non-institutionalized population. Basic demographic and health information was collected during an in-person interview. The Sample Child Core questionnaire obtained information on the health of one randomly selected child is provided by a knowledgeable adult (usually a parent or other legal guardian). The data that is collected from this questionnaire represented the primary source for the researchers analysis. The researchers used a sample of 87,578 children. More than 50% of children were white and were from families with a household income above the federal poverty level and maternal education beyond high school.

In 2013, 289 000 women died during pregnancy and childbirth and it was estimated that everyday 800 women all over the world died from childbirth or childbirth-related problems (World Health Organization, 2014). Often, maternal mortality is found to occur more often in developing countries than developed countries. Maternal mortality refers women who died from the situation like during pregnancy, termination of pregnancy within 42 days, regardless of duration and place of pregnancy, from aggravation caused by the pregnancy or pregnancy management (Nwagha et al, 2010). Maternal mortality may be resulted from direct or indirect cause. Direct causes are from obstetric complications of pregnancy, labour, and puerperium, and interventions whereas indirect causes are from the worsening of current conditions by pregnancy or delivery (Givewell, 2009). This paper aims to examine the causes for maternal mortality in both developed and developing countries and will end with a proposal for government to ensure women are given reproductive health rights.

Female infanticide has been accepted for centuries in many countries, and is more prominent in India and China than in any other countries around the world. It is illegal in India, however it is reported by Unicef that up to 50 million girls and women are “missing” in India as a result of systemic sex discrimination.

It is regrettable that female infanticide and foeticide are rapidly decreasing the female population throughout India. The main factors that is responsible for the increase in the incidence of female infanticide and foeticide is the low status of women, son preference, and the practice of dowry across all casts groups.

The current death rate is 29 per 1,000 live births and of the 2.8 million newborns dying at birth worldwide, India accounts for 700,000 children dying at birth or shortly after. The National Health Policy to improve care children and women. Poor neonatal health conditions, widespread illiteracy, poverty, poor sanitation and nutrition have also been identified and India’s hopes to tackle these issues by passing this policy.