Infant Mortality Rate in the US - Research Paper Example

? Infant Mortality Infant Mortality Introduction Infant mortality can be described as the death of an infant before the first birthday. This is in relation to 1000 live births. Infant mortality is different from childhood mortality, which is the death of a young child before the fifth birthday. Infant mortality can result from many aspects including birth defects, sudden death syndrome, injuries during pregnancy, and poverty especially in the developing countries. Although poverty might play an important role in deaths of these children, literacy also counts. The major reason why there is a big difference in infant mortality between developed and the developing countries is literacy levels and the impact of technological advancement. The regions that have embraced technological advancement have fewer deaths. The health of the mother and their eating habits also play an important role in the survival of the new born. For instance, mothers who smoke are most likely to deliver unhealthy or under developed child with an increased possibility of dying before the first birthday. According to statistical data, the developing countries or the poor countries have the highest levels of infant mortality. Moreover, politically unstable regions also have high levels of infant mortality mostly caused by the ongoing conflicts. In the same way that the rates of infant deaths differ in different countries, the reasons behind these deaths also differ. This implies that the major cause of infant mortality in US might not the leading one in Africa or another region. Evaluation of infant mortality rates has several benefits that include being the most accurate and sensitive measure of societal health. The lesser the deaths are the healthier he society is. Infant mortality rate in U.S Reliable statistical evidence has been collected concerning the progress of U.S in reducing infant mortality rate. Although it is challenge to reduce these deaths, the U.S has managed to realize a substantial progress in this area. The rate of infant mortality in U.S is 6.1 per 1,000 live births. For U.S, the leading causes for infant mortality include congenital malformations, chromosomal abnormalities, deformations, low birth weight, disorders associated with short gestation, and sudden infant death syndrome. With respect to individual communities, the minority communities experience more infant deaths than the white population. Black infants not belonging to the Hispanic community die at a rate that is twice that of non-Hispanic white infants. Geographically, the states experiencing the highest number of infant mortality are situated to the south. According to statistics, there has been a slight improvement in infant mortality rates with regard to reduction. This is attributed to reduction in deaths related to low birth weight. An infant delivered in 1950 with a birth weight of less than 1,000 grams had a 10% to 15% chance of survival. In contrast, an infant delivered in 2008 with similar birth weight had a survival chance of more than 60% (Nathanson, 2007). In spite of the improvement, U.S is still ranked among the poor countries with regard to infant mortality rate. This is in comparison to countries that include Iceland, japan, and Finland with 2.2, 2.3 and, 2.3 per 1,000 respectively. The reason why the rate of infant mortality rate in U.S remain higher as compared to other European countries is the high number of preterm births. Statistics rank the U.S 130 in 184 countries with high number of premature births (Chandrasekhar, 2013). This is 12% of the overall births in U.S. Most of the infants in this category are between 34 and 36 weeks. There are opportunities that can be exploited to reduce the preterm deaths that include addressing prenatal smoking, SIDS, and preterm deliveries. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment ranks Kansas as having 6.3 deaths per 1,000 in 2012. This rate has been decreasing since early 2000s. The major contributor of infant mortality rates in Kansas is the high mortality rates for black infants. This number is three times that of white infants. This is in spite of the fact that both rates have reduced during the previous two decades. Most of the premature infants born in the U.S are not born in proper hospitals that possess level III neonatal ICUs, which effectively reduce the chances of infant deaths. Fetal monitoring is tracking the performance of the vital organs of the infant, which can be done during labor, pregnancy and during delivery. This helps in determining the duration of uterus contractions and the heart rate. One of the most common devices used in monitoring include the Doppler fetal monitor. There are two types of monitoring; external and internal. External monitoring is done through monitoring the heart rate of the baby using a special stethoscope. Often two devices are used in external monitoring where one of the device uses sound waves to assess the heart rate while the other measures the contraction duration. This mode of monitoring helps reduce the rate of infant mortality since it is a non-stress test. For contraction stress test, external monitoring is used in checking the health of the baby if the baby does not show much movement during the non-stress test. This test ensures that the baby is in good health and to show the possibilities of premature births since it also evaluates the amount of amniotic fluid. Internal monitoring is only done after the amniotic fluid has ruptured. This mode of monitoring is continuous and uses an electronic transducer, which is connected directly to the baby’s scalp. This helps in monitoring the birth process since the start to the end. This mode of monitoring has a higher rate of accuracy since it does not depend ion waves to report the heart rate of the baby. Instead, a thin wire is attached to the baby to monitor the baby’ heart throughout the birth process. With regard to prevention of premature births, internal monitoring is important since it helps the practitioner in determining whether the mother is undergoing a preterm labor. Internal monitoring is also effective in determining the health of the baby especially when there are doubts concerning its health. Since unhealthy babies might be born as a result of insufficient nutrients to the baby, internal monitoring can help in determining whether the baby is getting adequate oxygen. If not, action is taken to rectify the case so that the baby can be delivered healthy. Statistical data indicates that a significant number of women prefer home birth. This mode has its pros and cons. Home birth is safer than hospital birth for women without birth complications. This is because of the privacy and the comfort of a familiar environment in whatever position the mother deems necessary (MacDorman, et al., 2012). The mother also maintains control of the situation since she is the focus of everyone, which might not be possible in a hospital environment. Unnecessary interventions of labor are not necessary in this environment and the normal progress of labor is allowed to proceed. The woman does not have to go to the hospital since she has personal caregivers who come to her. According to statistical data, home births have been on the rise in America. There was a 29% increase in these births between the periods of 2004 and 2009. In 2009, the representation of home births included 0.72% of all births that year. With regard to white women of non-Hispanic origin, home births increased by approximately 36% where one in every 90 births is a home birth. Home births also vary between regions. For instance, in 2009, Louisiana had 0.2% of homebirths while Oregon had an approximate value of 2.0% and 2.6% for Montana (Garrett, 2006). Among the disadvantages involved in home births include assuming the responsibility of own health. Additionally, the involved parties should be willing to accept any consequences resulting from homebirths. Lack of support could be a possibility. If it happens that the mother requires Cesarean Section during the birth, it would be risky since the child or the baby can die or develop complications during transportation to the hospital. This implies that home births should not be encouraged in the quest to reduce infant mortality rates. RH factor also plays an important role in the survival of a fetus. Rhesus factor is an inherited protein, which is located on the surface of the red blood cells. If an individual’s blood has this protein, then the individual is Rhesus positive; the most common of the two. The opposite is true for Rhesus negative, RH negative. The baby needs special care if the mother is Rhesus negative and the father is Rhesus positive. During the initial prenatal visit, the mother is required to undertake a Rhesus factor test. If the test is not done early enough, the mother might miscarriage since the opposite RH factor is seen as an intruder that should be removed from the body. RH factor is the main cause of hemolytic anemia, which can become serious enough to lead to brain damage and even death for the newborn. It can also cause ectopic pregnancy, blood transfusion, and chorionic villus. Biologically, the major determinant of a child’s gender or sex is the father. The baby’s gender can be determined before the child is born using ultrasound. The sex of the child can be determined as early as 18 weeks into pregnancy towards 5 months. To help in determining the gender of the child, the position of the child is of monumental importance when the ultrasound is undertaken. For certain reasons, the practitioners are able to determine the boy child better than a girl child is. Another reliable way of determining the difference is using amniocentesis, which analyzes the child’s chromosomes. This test is limited and only available for mothers who are at least 35 years of age. This is for the purpose of identification of possible genetic challenges. This procedure incorporates needle insertion to the uterus to acquire a small amount of the amniotic fluid. This method is more effective and the sex of the child can be determined earlier than other methods. This is because this method can determine the sex of the child during the 16th week of pregnancy. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is the major cause of infant mortality. In spite of the fact that SIDS is unpredictable using medical history of an individual, it can be prevented (Carl, 2001). To prevent the occurrence of this disease, infants should be made to sleep on their backs and prevented from lying on their stomachs. Other potential causes of SIDS include drinking, smoking, poor prenatal care, low birth weight, mothers younger than 20, and overheating which is caused by excessive sleepwear. With regard to sleepwear and beddings, SIDS can occur due to accidental suffocation or strangulation. If these are observed, SIDS would be prevented and infant mortality rate reduced. The rate of births resulting from SIDS in U.S is 52.5 for every 100,000 live births. Considering Nebraska, rate of SIDS reduced from 89.1 to 54.0 between 2009 and 2010 (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), 2013). Smoking during pregnancy is very dangerous to the unborn baby. This is because it affects the baby’s health before and after birth. There are numerous poisons involved while smoking tobacco. Such include carbon monoxide and nicotine, which is the addictive substance. The poisons are absorbed into the blood stream of the mother and eventually end up in the baby’s blood. Smoking lowers the quantity of oxygen that is available both to the mother and to the baby. It also increases the rate of heartbeat of the child and alleviates the chances of a stillbirth, miscarriage and premature births. In addition, smoking increases the chances of the baby acquiring respiratory problems. These aspects are still the main contributors to infant mortality. This implies that smoking plays a major role in increasing infant mortality rate. Health practitioners indicate that there is no accepted level of smoking. Therefore, to reduce induced infant mortality rates, mothers are advised to avoid smoking. Statistical data indicates that up to 20% of women in U.S smoke when pregnant. Hispanic women were found to have lower rates of smoking while pregnant with a rate of 6.5% (Mishra & Newhouse, 2007). A significant number of women use drugs when pregnant. If the mother uses drugs, they affect the development of the child at almost all stages of development during pregnancy. The drugs can seep into the placenta and affect how it works leading to problems especially to the baby. The baby might not get adequate oxygen or other nutrients. The placenta may be affected by the drugs to the extent of causing excessive bleeding, which could kill the baby, the mother, or both. This is referred to as placental abruption. The most common drugs known to cause this problem include Marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine, and ecstasy. Cocaine could cause slow growth for the fetus. This could eventually lead to premature births that could in turn cause an infant’s death. Painkillers are also classified as drugs and can result in similar issues as those caused by hard drugs such as cocaine. The baby could show withdrawal symptoms due to the effects of drugs. Moreover, the child may also result in behavioral problems after birth. This shows that the baby could develop problems inflicted by the mother during pregnancy. This gets worse since elimination of drugs in an adult is much easier than it is for the adult. Complications resulting from usage of drugs can cause death of the child while young. Therefore, to reduce infant mortality, it would be in the best interest of the mother to avoid drugs. References Carl?E. H. (2001). "Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and Other Causes of Infant Mortality", American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 164(3) 346-357. Chandrasekhar, S. (2013). Infant Mortality, Population Growth and Family Planning in India: An Essay on Population Problems and International Tensions. New York: Routledge. Garrett, E. (2006). Infant mortality: A continuing social problem. Aldershot, England: Ashgate. MacDorman, M., Mathews, T. J. & Declercq, E. (2012). Home Births in the United States, 1990- 2009. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db84.pdf Mishra, P. & Newhouse, D. L. (2007). Health Aid and Infant Mortality, Issues 2007-2100. New York: International Monetary Fund. Nathanson, C. A. (2007). Disease prevention as social change: The state, society and public health in the U.S., France, Great Britain, and Canada. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). (2013). Retrieved from http://dhhs.ne.gov/publichealth/Pages/sids_facts.aspx Read More