September 4th, 2009 
September is Infant Mortality Awareness Month. As a country we are failing our babies miserably. Too many never make it to their first birthday. An estimated 2 million babies die within their first 24 hours each year worldwide, and the United States has the second worst newborn mortality rate in the developed world, according to a recent report by Save the Children.
Diving into the report’s stats only darkens the picture: American babies are three times more likely to die in their first month than children born in Japan, and newborn mortality is 2.5 times higher in the United States than in Finland, Iceland, or Norway. Only Latvia, with six deaths per 1,000 live births, has a higher death rate for newborns than the United States, which ranks near the bottom of industrialized nations, tying with Hungary, Malta, Poland, and Slovakia with five deaths per 1,000 births.
Although the newborn mortality rate in the United States has fallen in recent decades, it continues to disproportionately affect people of color, especially African Americans. Only 17 percent of all U.S. births were to African American families, but 33 percent of all low-birth-weight babies were African American, according to the report.
Indeed, the statistics on black babies are the most dismal of all. African Americans have 2.3 times the infant mortality rate of non-Hispanic whites. Black babies are four times as likely to die as infants due to complications related to low birth weight as non-Hispanic white infants. Other sobering statistics from the CDC:
- African Americans had 1.8 times the sudden infant death syndrome mortality rate as non-Hispanic whites, in 2005.
- The infant mortality rate for African American mothers with over 13 years of education was almost three times that of non-Hispanic white mothers in 2005.
This last statistic shows that education does not help protect black babies from poor birth outcomes like it does other ethnic groups, and poses a unique question about how to reverse the tide and save more black babies.
One of the theories being put forth by researchers is that black women tend to enter pregnancy unhealthy and overstressed and cannot reverse years of unhealthy habits and unresolved stress in the 40 weeks of pregnancy. The result is babies who are born too soon or too small – both avoidable outcomes. “In countries where mothers do well, children do well,” Charles MacCormack, president and CEO of Save the Children, said in a written statement accompanying the report.
As a country we have to figure out how to address this problem. Obviously teaching black women – and all women whose pregnancies are at risk in this country – to live healthier, less stressful lives isn’t going to happen overnight. And I don’t expect the government to figure out how to save our babies, or at least, I’m not willing to wait that long. As mothers, whose lives are all interconnected, we have to figure it out.
I’m going to fight it with the stories I write, the issues I bring up, and the positions I take. I’m also going to fight it with my pocketbook. This month at MochaManual.com we’re donating 50 percent of all our sale proceeds to the March of Dimes to further their research to help all of us have healthier babies. If you want to help me help us, click here to shop our line of maternity and new Dad tees, baby Onesies, gift baskets, and Mocha Manual books to help a worthy cause or just make your own donation to the March of Dimes.
