In Turnabout, Infant Deaths Climb in South

[nosmokes]

that compassion in the conservertism of dimson's is pretty hard to find i reckon, unless you happen to be one of the haves or have mores. but if you're poor and down south and black to boot, you'll have a hard time finding a thimblefull worth of that compassion he talked about. the more things change...
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original-NYTimes

In Turnabout, Infant Deaths Climb in South


By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: April 22, 2007

HOLLANDALE, Miss. — For decades, Mississippi and neighboring states with large black populations and expanses of enduring poverty made steady progress in reducing infant death. But, in what health experts call an ominous portent, progress has stalled and in recent years the death rate has risen in Mississippi and several other states.

The setbacks have raised questions about the impact of cuts in welfare and Medicaid and of poor access to doctors, and, many doctors say, the growing epidemics of obesity, diabetes and hypertension among potential mothers, some of whom tip the scales here at 300 to 400 pounds.

“I don’t think the rise is a fluke, and it’s a disturbing trend, not only in Mississippi but throughout the Southeast,” said Dr. Christina Glick, a neonatologist in Jackson, Miss., and past president of the National Perinatal Association.

To the shock of Mississippi officials, who in 2004 had seen the infant mortality rate — defined as deaths by the age of 1 year per thousand live births — fall to 9.7, the rate jumped sharply in 2005, to 11.4. The national average in 2003, the last year for which data have been compiled, was 6.9. Smaller rises also occurred in 2005 in Alabama, North Carolina and Tennessee. Louisiana and South Carolina saw rises in 2004 and have not yet reported on 2005.

Whether the rises continue or not, federal officials say, rates have stagnated in the Deep South at levels well above the national average.

Most striking, here and throughout the country, is the large racial disparity. In Mississippi, infant deaths among blacks rose to 17 per thousand births in 2005 from 14.2 per thousand in 2004, while those among whites rose to 6.6 per thousand from 6.1. (The national average in 2003 was 5.7 for whites and 14.0 for blacks.)

The overall jump in Mississippi meant that 65 more babies died in 2005 than in the previous year, for a total of 481.

The toll is visible in Hollandale, a tired town in the impoverished Delta region of northwest Mississippi.

Jamekia Brown, 22 and two months pregnant with her third child, lives next to the black people’s cemetery in the part of town called No Name, where multiple generations crowd into cheap clapboard houses and trailers.

So it took only a minute to walk to the graves of Ms. Brown’s first two children, marked with temporary metal signs because she cannot afford tombstones.
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complete article including links to other sources here

[Mika]

1. Meanwhile, a little farther to the south..

http://www.plenglish.com/Article.asp?ID=%7B284B62F8-CA0B-4AE0-BF2E-47C49E2D8688%7D&language=EN">Zero Infant Mortality, Cuba Region

Cienaga de Zapata, the Cuban municipality in Matanzas western province where the US suffered its first defeat in Latin America in 1961, keeps recording zero infant mortality rate in children below one year, it was reported Wednesday.

Authorities from the national health system noted that even though another 24 municipalities show similar results, advances of the infant-maternal program in Cienaga de Zapata are noteworthy.

That locality comprises over 1,544 square miles, with less than 9,000 inhabitants spread all over the area, with communities far apart from each other, making access to health care more difficult.

In 2006, that territory reported 103 births with positive infant-maternal indicators. Such results are also possible due to the highly trained human capital, particularly in the 13 family doctors offices, a program providing the population with primary health care, Granma daily noted.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Could it be that Cuba

has a real PLAN for HEALTH CARE???? But we can't have that, because the insurance companies would go out of business, and their life is much more important than the lives of a few black people down South :sarcasm:

[Mika]

4. It is what the Cuban people wanted, so they made it happen.

They created infrastructure that makes high quality health care possible. Their education system also.

It takes hard work and many sacrifices, but they are doing it.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. Cuba's priorities are different than those of the USA

I think that the main orientation is to favor big business and capitalists who are out to make a buck and to heck with the people.

[nosmokes]

8. Wow. that's an amazing fact Mika. When a country that we have sanctions

against has a better track record w/infant mortality then we truly are in dire straits. especially an agrarian and supposedly *backward* country such as Cuba.

thanks for the posts and the great info mika.

[Mika]

9. U.S. has second worst newborn death rate in modern world, report says

U.S. has second worst newborn death rate in modern world, report says
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/parenting/05/08/mothers.index/index.html

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 new report.

American babies are three times more likely to die in their first month as children born in Japan, and newborn mortality is 2.5 times higher in the United States than in Finland, Iceland or Norway, Save the Children researchers found.

Only Latvia, with six deaths per 1,000 live births, has a higher death rate for newborns than the United States, which is tied near the bottom of industrialized nations with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with five deaths per 1,000 births.

"The United States has more neonatologists and neonatal intensive care beds per person than Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, but its newborn rate is higher than any of those countries," said the annual State of the World's Mothers report.

The report, which analyzed data from governments, research institutions and international agencies, found higher newborn death rates among U.S. minorities and disadvantaged groups. For African-Americans, the mortality rate is nearly double that of the United States as a whole, with 9.3 deaths per 1,000 births.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the worst place in the world to be a mother or child, with Scandinavian nations again taking the top spots in the rankings by the Connecticut-based humanitarian group.

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The newborn mortality rate in the United States has fallen in recent decades, the report said, but continues to affect minorities disproportionately.

Only 17 percent of all U.S. births were to African-American families, but 33 percent of all low-birthweight babies were African-American, according to the report.

The research also found that poorer mothers with less education were at a significantly higher risk of early delivery. The study added that in general lower educational attainment was associated with higher newborn mortality.

Tinker said some nations ranked high in part because they offer free health services for pregnant women and babies, while the United States suffers from disparities in access to health care.

"We can do better here, but what's really important is that we do something" in the developing world, she said.

The report said almost all newborn and maternal deaths take place in developing nations -- 99 percent and 98 percent, respectively. The newborn mortality rates were particularly high in countries with a recent history of armed conflict, including Liberia and Sierra Leone.

But the report also concluded that political will was more important than national wealth. A "newborn scorecard" ranking 78 developing nations found that some relatively impoverished countries -- including Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua and Vietnam -- fare better than others.

2005 UN infant mortality stats
http://unstats.un.org/UNSD/Demographic/products/indwm/ww2005/tab3b.htm

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. My doctor just wrote an article

about the obesity epidemic and its causes. The biggest culprit is junk food--which is, sad to say, the easiest and often cheapest food one can obtain. If you are living poor, you may or may not be able to have a garden--many can't, and so they go without fresh greens. I know I grew up poor and never knew fresh veggies until I was a young adult--it was tomato soup and Velveeta cheese or hot dogs and mashed potatoes when I was growing up, because they were cheap and easy for a single parent with a full time job to prepare.

[Jamastiene]

5. Also, beans and rice if you are lucky.

Usually, though, we aren't that lucky as kids in impoverished areas. It's like you said, no fresh veggies because the price of junk food is lower than healthy food, unfortunately.

[Hand]

7. Remember the name: Haley Barbour.

The blood of these dead infants is on his hands. He killed them all.