The Rates of Infant Mortality - Essay Example

Infant mortality amongst Black African groups in London Borough of Hackney Introduction Infant mortality is the number of infants who die before reaching the age of one year. It is measured using the infant mortality rate, which is the number of deaths in every one thousand births. The rate of infant mortality has been significantly reducing over the last several decades all over the world. This is because of improved health care and studies on better maternal and childcare, as well as enforcing of policies by countries to reduce the cases of infant mortality. However, infant mortality rates are higher in developing countries than in developed, especially western countries. There are several causes of infant mortality including maternal complications during pregnancy like chronic stress and high blood pressure, congenital abnormalities, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, low birth weight, premature births and respiratory disease syndrome. Though some of these causes can be detected early and be treated in order to reduce the chances of infant mortality, some of them are usually detected late leading to infant mortality. It is also worth noting that the rates of infant mortality have shown significant disparities among people of different demography. Infant mortality rates differ among people with different ages, race, and socio-economic status among others. The UK is one of the countries with very low infant mortality rates. In London, different boroughs have different mortality rates, but the overall infant mortality rate in London is similar to the rest of England’s. boroughs in the inner parts of London, such as Richmond and Kiingston, have been recorded as having lower infant mortality rates than those in the outer parts of London, for instance Haringey, Harrow and Croydon among others. One of the boroughs with a significantly high number of infant mortality rates is Hackney. Being in the inner area of London, Hackney as a borough has had to deal with being on the spotlight about its high infant mortality rate among its neighbouring borough with much lower rates of infant mortality (City & Hackney Primary Care Trust, 2006). Hackney is one of the most populous boroughs in London, mostly occupied by Britons of African or Caribbean origin, though there are people from other communities like Jews, Turks, and Vietnamese. Hackney is a borough renowned for its vibrancy, cultural and artistic environment, hosting several galleries and museums and is close to several big financial institutions. Despite the vibrancy in Hackney, it is on the map for several negative aspects in the whole of Britain. Hackney has one of the poorest populations in the country, has very high rates of unemployment, poor health, low life expectancy particularly among men, but better for women, drug use and teenage pregnancie in the whole country. In London, demographic differences are determinants of these differences. For instance, minority groups in London, many of which live in hackney, tend to be among the poorest, are more likely to be living in unfit homes, have poor education or not educated at all and have the poorest infrastructure in terms of health facilities, roads, railways and other infrastructure. With this background, it is easy to see why the borough of Hackney has above average infant mortality rates, though several steps are being taken by the authorities to ensure a turnaround of this incidence. The biggest causes of infant mortality rates in Hackney are pre-term births and maternal complications. Teenage pregnancy, obesity among children and low education standards are some of the biggest problems facing Hackney. between 2008 and 2009, the infant mortality rate for Hackney was 5.4 deaths for every 1000 births, which was much higher than the overall London rate, which was 6.4 deaths per 1000 births. The highest infant mortality rates in Hackney occur among people of African and Caribbean origins. This was attributed to pre-term births that were caused by several factors during the women’s pregnancies. These include poor health and diet during pregnancy, generally high poverty levels, as well as stress experienced by these women. Among these black women, education levels are also very low, hence their knowledge on how to take care of themselves during pregnancy is also very limited. Furthermore, most of these women rarely attend antenatal clinics till very late in their pregnancy or even visit the hospital when it is time to deliver. This means that these women do not get proper counseling during pregnancy, thus jeopardizing the lives of their unborn babies in the womb. Furthermore, complications with their fetus cannot be diagnosed and treated early enough, with the inevitable death of the infants at very young ages, exacerbating the problem of infant mortality rates. Furthermore, lack of proper care during pregnancies has been the cause of children among different groups having learning difficulties and other disabilities, leading to more problems that increase rates of infant mortality. in contrary, more educated and financially better off white people living in Hackney have lower infant mortality rates than the poor and less educated people of the black community (Hodnett and Gates 9-15, 2006). Health is a very important aspect in any human being’s life. Good health determines one’s life expectancy, the health of their offspring, their financial security since healthier people will be able to work better than people in poor health and also spend less on matters relating to health, and also to the comfort, a person will experience in life. Good health is determined by many factors including genetics, diet, financial well-being, knowledge on healthy living including on diet and physical activities, the environment on works in, how one handles stress, the type of jobs people do, people’s habits such as smoking and drinking, among many other factors. It therefore goes without saying that healthy mothers tend to give birth to healthy children, who then go ahead to be healthy adults. However, unhealthy mothers rarely give birth to healthy babies. In fact, unhealthy mothers usually have difficult pregnancies and some are not able to carry their babies to term, leading to premature births and deaths among pre-term babies. Pre-term babies are those born before they are due to be born. These babies are usually smaller, more vulnerable to disease, not fully developed and more likely to die than children born when they are due to be born, that is at full term. Among the black community in Hackney, poverty and lack of education is the main reason most women are not healthy. These women have got no idea on what to eat, what not to eat, foods that promote their health and that of their unborn babies in the womb and what not to indulge in while pregnant. Furthermore, some of these women continue their hazardous habits like smoking and taking drugs while pregnant, further putting their health and those of the babies in their wombs at risk (Harrington and Loyd, 2008). In addition, many young girls get pregnant at very early ages when their bodies can barely support children, leading to poor health and infant mortality during birth or before birth, as well as endangering the lives of these young mothers. Being a major problem in the whole of London, the high infant mortality rates in Hackney and other boroughs experiencing similar high rates of mortality among infants have prompted policymakers in London and in the boroughs, as well as the medical and social practioners to take drastic action to reduce these large numbers of deaths among infants below one year of age. The first step was taken by the Department of Health, which set out to reduce the number of infant mortalities by the year 2010. This challenge was taken up by various stakeholders in Hackney who decided that they would spreahead the initiative in the borough. This team referred to itself as Team Hackney. In order to achieve this, research was carried out to determine the main causes of infant mortality and who were most affected. The results of this research showed the main areas that needed attention and plans were set out on how to tackle them. The results basically showed that black women in Hackney were the most affected, and the reasons for this included poor education and their lack of knowledge in attending prenanatal clinics early enough. Therefore, the authorities focused on starting programmes that would educate these disadvantaged women on what they needed to do, among other advice given under an umbrella program known as Reducing Infant Mortality Programme (RIMP). Some of the programmes implemented include a maternity peer education program known as the ‘Bump Buddies’, where other women were encourage to befriend pregnant and unknowledgeable pregnant women in their neighbourhoods and advice them on how to go about a safe pregnancy. Other programmes included a maternal helpline, formation of maternal programmes for minority immigrants, home-based midwifery services among others (Palmer, 2007). All these avenues have helped more disadvantaged women become more aware of how to take care of their pregnancies and reduce infant mortalities among them. These programmes have proven successful and useful among thee vulnerable women, the community at large and all stakeholders. Most important, they have helped reduce the infant mortality rate in Hackney over the years, to less than 5.4 deaths per 1000 in 2008 (ERS Research and Consultancy, 2008). Furthermore, teenage pregnancies have reduced significantly, increased knowledge and more breastfeeding among mothers has been witnessed. So successful has this program been that the program received a Health Service Journal Award in 2008 for significantly reducing infant mortality and improving maternal health (ERS Research and Consultancy, 2008). Conclusion and recommendations Although a significant improvement has been made to reduce infant mortality rates in Hackney through the RIMP program, more still has to be done. For instance, the encouragement of education especially amongst teenagers should be priority. This will not only engage girls and keep them from engaging in sexual behaviour that could see them getting pregnant young, but it will also ensure they focus on their education and alleviate poverty, giving them better chances to have healthier babies. Apart from poverty eradication, the program should also teach women sustainable activities through trainings to help them earn a living. This way, they will be healthier and carry their babies to full term, with the added advantage of reducing infant mortality. After all has been said and done, the root causes of high infant mortality rates should be the concern of everyone in the society, rather than the minority of people it affects. That way, the averages for the whole of England will be kept low and the quality of life will increase. References City & Hackney Primary Care Trust (CHPCT) (2006) [online] Maternity and Infant Mortality Health Equity Audit. Available from: www.chpct.nhs.uk [Accessed 19th January 2012]. DH (2007) Implementation Plan for Reducing Health Inequalities in Infant Mortality: A Good Practice Guide. London; Wiley and Sons. ERS Research and Consultancy (2008) A Review of the Healthy Eating Through Pregnancy Intervention [online] Available from: www.shoreditchtrust.org.uk [Accessed 19th January 2012]. Harrington L. and Loyd L. (2008) Evaluation of the Hackney Reducing Infant Mortality Programme.[ online] London: NLH Partnership Available from www.nlhpartnership.co.uk [Accessed 19th January 2012]. Hodnett E. and Gates S. (2006) Continuous support for women during childbirth. The Cochrane database of Systematic reviews. 1. 9-15 Palmer, J. (November 2007) Hackney: reducing infant mortality. Hackney: Team Hackney. Available from: http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=7993836&aspect=print. 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