Infant Mortality: Limited Ability To Receive Prenatal Care
Doctors are known to provide the best care for women during pregnancy, ensuring that a new baby will soon be born and live a healthy life. On the opposite of that issue, women who are unable to pay for or receive good medical care are at great risks during pregnancy. Many women who have not had the financial luxury of good doctors often lose their babies without the first year of life. It has been found that infant mortality is directly linked to prenatal care that is inadequate or unavailable.
Infant mortality is the death of children under the age of one year old, it is found that most of this is due to not receiving prenatal care. Inadequate growth has been consistently associated with lower socioeconomic status, in particular within poor urban populations. “It was estimated that 30% of low birth weights could be attributed because of the mother’s lower social class. These disparities in birth outcomes include higher rates of maternal smoking, poorer nutrition and a higher prevalence of genitourinary tract infections among lower-income pregnant women”. “The premature birth and intrauterine growth restriction to a significant extent can be explained because of the exposure of poor pregnant women to accumulated chronic stressors, including crowded home environments, unemployment, single-parenting households, less social support, and financial problems”. Living in a low-income area not being able to work, taking care of other children, having less social support and financial issues it creates the pregnant women to become stressed out and can drive them to infant mortality.
The death rate is the number of infant deaths for every 1,000 live births. Infant mortality is an important marker of the overall health of a society. In 2016, the infant mortality rate in the United States was 5.9 deaths per 1,000 live births. Over 23,000 infants died in the United States in 2016. The five leading causes of infant death in 2016 were birth defects, preterm birth and low birth weight, sudden infant death syndrome, Maternal pregnancy complications, and injuries” (CDC).
In the United States, African Americans are more likely to have infant mortality than Caucasians. African Americans have 2.2 times the infant mortality rate as non-Hispanic whites. African American infants are 3.2 times as likely to die from complications related to low birth weight as compared to non-Hispanic white infants. African Americans had over twice the sudden infant death syndrome mortality rate as non-Hispanic whites. In 2014, African American mothers were 2.2 times more likely than non-Hispanic white mothers to receive late or no prenatal care.
The reason why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis is that the disparity in death rates has everything to do with the lived experience of being a black woman in America, an interview on Simone Landrum and how she was noticing something different about her pregnancy as it progressed. She began having constant headaches and sensitivity to light; she described the pain as shocking. The constant pain that she was feeling was from stress because of her living situation with her boyfriend. She got closer to her due date, she noticed that her hands, feet, and face were more swollen, she had to quit her job because she had felt so ill. “Mrs. Landrum’s tells us how she has been affected by the doctor she was recommended and how she was treated during the time period. Landrum later obtained her electronic medical records”. It showed her elevated blood pressure readings of 143/86 combined with headaches, swelling, and fatigue which points to the possibility of pre-eclampsia which is dangerously high blood pressure”. Her doctor who several of her friends recommended and who accepted Medicaid brushed aside her complaints. He suggested Tylenol for the headaches when she told him her head still was hurting and he would tell her to keep taking it. The doctor didn’t want to give her the correct prenatal care so he just told her to take Tylenol so this leads her to having a high risk of maternal death.
The combination of Simone’s poor prenatal care and use of Tylenol are two examples of the leading causes of maternal death, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease are two of the leading causes of maternal death. The doctors' medical records did not mention the hypertensive episode, the headaches or the swelling. When doctors do not pay attention to pregnant women who say they are feeling ill or they are stressed out by something it is putting them or the baby at a huge risk. It is affecting the baby they should take charge instead of telling them to take medicine to get rid of the pain that is being caused.”Aside from the handwritten note, Landrum’s medical records don’t mention the hypertensive episode, the headaches or the swelling, and she says that was the last time the doctor or anyone from his office spoke to her. “It was like he threw me away”.
The CDC is being very committed to improving birth outcomes. This means that public health agencies have to work together with health care providers, communities, and partners to reduce infant deaths in the United States. Them joining together can help address the social, behavioral, and health risk issues that affect the birth outcomes and contribute to infant mortality. “In 2015, preterm birth and low birth weight accounted for about 17% of infant deaths. CDC provides support to perinatal quality collaboratives (PQCs), which are state or multi-state networks of teams working to improve health outcomes for mothers and babies” (CDC). If they improve the quality of perinatal care in their states, including efforts to reduce preterm birth and improve prematurity outcomes.
The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) was established in 1987 to reduce infant morbidity and mortality. PRAMS collects the specific-state, population-based data on the maternal attitudes and the experiences before, during, and very shortly after pregnancy. Forty-seven states, New York City, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board currently participate in PRAMS. PRAMS data can be used to identify groups of women and infants at high risk for health problems and any other situation that is going on in the environment. It also measures all the progress toward the goals in improving the health of mothers and infants.
There are plenty of birth defects that affect 1 in 33 babies and are a leading cause of infant mortality in the United States, accounting for about one-fifth of all infant deaths in 2015. The CDC works to identify the causes of these birth defects and try to find opportunities to prevent them and improve the health of those babies living with birth defects. “By applying a public health approach that incorporates three essential elements of disease tracking, research to identify causes, and prevention research and programs we can rapidly translate scientific findings into appropriate public health interventions. Understanding the potential causes of birth defects can lead to recommendations, policies, and services to help prevent them. CDC works toward a day when every child is born with the best health possible” (CDC).
This is how everyone should look at Infant mortality. There should be more people concerned about the death rate of babies dying. The doctors should try to find a method that will find a way to catch these birth health issues earlier in the pregnancy. These pregnant women should not have to go through the pain of losing their baby before they reach their first birthday. There are ways that the Doctors/Woman can reduce the infant mortality rate and make the process less difficult.
Women living in poverty and pregnancy have a huge impact on the pregnancy rate. “Poverty as been associated with increased total fertility rates, unintended or teenage pregnancy and being a single mother”. In majority of the countries, youth that is living in poverty have a significant increase risk for teenage pregnancy. “In the article it states that in a recent Alberta survey. female teenagers living in poverty were found to have a five time greater risk for pregnancy”. It was compared to a women who had higher income and women who were living in poverty it was more likely for them to smoke,poor dietary habits, lower levels of education, and engaged in a higher risk. The lower socioeconomic status in Canada and other places around the world is associated with decreased prenatal care attendance.
Women who live in poverty have higher rates than men. “In 2007, 13.8 percent of females were poor compared to 11.0 percent of men”. Women are poorer than Men in all racial and ethnic groups. “The data show that 26.5 percent African American women are poor compared to 22.3 African American men; 23.6 percent of Hispanic women are poor compared to 19.6 Hispanic men;10.7 percent Asian women are poor compared to 9.7 Asian men; and 11.6 White women are poor compared to 9.4 White men”. Women take the cost of bearing the economic cost of raising children. The women being pregnant affects her work and education because of the unplanned and mistimed pregnancies which leads the growing baby the mother is carig to come out with poor nutrition and smoking during their pregnancies because of the low birth weight.
Maternal Poverty has a huge impact on young children and adolescents it creates them to have behavioral problems, and it interacts with plenty of characteristics that has been found amongst many women living in poverty.
