Our country's infant mortality rate - the number of infants who die before their first birthday - reflects the health of its pregnant women and the quality of care provided for both its women and infants. Experts suggest that the leading causes of infant mortality include disorders related to premature birth and low birth-weight, congenital malformations, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), maternal complications, and lack of access to housing, nutritious food and adult support. Shockingly, as stated in a CNN article, although the United States has more neonatologists and neonatal intensive care beds per person than Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, newborn death rates among U.S. minorities and disadvantaged groups were higher. 

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. Additionally, African-American babies are 2.4 times more likely as white infants to die before their first birthday. According to a recent New York Times article, "In New York City in 1998, babies less than a year old died at a rate of 6.8 per 1,000, which is slightly better than the national average, 7.2. Bedford-Stuyvesant, however, has one of the highest rates in the country, 14 per 1,000, a 20 percent increase over 1997." Our nation's poor ranking is largely a result of the racial and socioeconomic disparities that exist in health care delivery systems. The good news is that these tragic causes of death are preventable when at risk women and infants have access to appropriate prenatal and postnatal care.

To address the issue of infant mortality, Reps. Edolphus "Ed" Towns and Fred Upton have introduced H.R.3267, "The Healthy Start Reauthorization Act of 2007." This legislation tackles the problem of infant mortality by helping our nation's most disadvantaged children survive infancy and live longer, healthier lives. Healthy Start seeks to reduce infant and maternal mortality and morbidity through grants to at-risk communities designed to improve health care access and quality for low-income mothers and newborns. Some of the critical services include: outreach, prenatal and postnatal care, health education, and case management. The program uses a community-based approach and provides $120 million per year for a range of much-needed health, social, and economic services to low-income women.

This important legislation has not yet passed the House of Representatives.  However, the companion legislation (S.1760) was passed in the Senate on April 30, 2008. Also, in April, a broad group of more than 60 national, state and local advocacy organizations sent a letter of endorsement for the "Healthy Start Reauthorization Act of 2007," urging Congress to quickly approve this critical legislation. The bill is currently in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

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