"For months, Dr. Daniel Edney had watched his state's infant mortality rate rise. "It just kept climbing," he remembers. "We'd get another death coming in, another death coming in." As the public health officer in Mississippi, it's Edney's job to monitor the number of infant deaths in the state. When he saw the final figures for 2024, they were as bad as he feared."
"Nationally, 5.6 babies die per 1,000 born. "What that translates to is 20,000 deaths every year," says Dr. Michael Warren, chief medical and health officer for March of Dimes a group that advocates for improvements in maternal health care. "That's the equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing once a week for an entire year and killing everyone on board." Warren calls the U.S. "one of the most dangerous developed countries for giving birth.""
Mississippi recorded a rise in infant deaths in 2024, reaching nearly 10 deaths per 1,000 live births and 15.2 per 1,000 for Black infants. The state declared a public health emergency on Aug. 21 in response to the worsening rates. Nationally, the infant mortality rate is 5.6 per 1,000, which equals roughly 20,000 deaths each year. Public health officials and advocates warn that proposed Medicaid spending cuts could exacerbate infant mortality across the country. Neonatal units in Mississippi are treating extremely small newborns, highlighting strains on care systems and inequities in outcomes.
Read at www.npr.org
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