Maternal Nutrition and Infant Mortality in the Context of Relationality

Abstract

Solutions to the problem of higher infant death rates among black families have eluded medical, health policy, and research communities for decades. African American women continue to face a disproportionately higher risk for delivering premature and low birthweight babies, many of whom die within their first year of life. Although infant mortality in the United States decreased among all races between 1980 and 2000, the overall black-white gap for infant mortality widened—and this pattern has continued. A 2002 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of infant mortality rates in 1995-1998 in the 60 largest U.S. cities revealed that the median infant mortality rate for blacks was 13.9 per 1,000 live births, compared to 6.4 and 5.9 for whites and Hispanics, respectively.