why is the u.s infant mortality rate's so high?

Question

why do we have one of the most highest infant mortality rate's in the world when we are suppose to have the best healthcare system, please no stupid answer's,

Answer 1

The biggest reason is the lack of prenatal care for women without healthcare coverage. If women were healthy before getting pregnant and had healthy teeth (it makes a big difference) they would be able to carry pregnancies longer. Doctors know that if you make sure people are healthy all the time they tend to stay healthy, and that requires making sure they are healthy with routine check ups and revues of lifestyle.

I think the biggest misconception there is here is that the US has the best healthcare system. Its the best for those who have the money, the rest of the country gets by with avoiding seeing the doctor even when we probably should see one. Getting doctor appointments is difficult, ERs and hospitals in low income urban areas are closing at a high rate, doctors are mobile and move to the areas that can afford them. In rural areas they are losing maternity wards at a high rate - so that rural living women have to travel for hours to deliver, and for a high risk pregnancy (that was undiagnosed as such) that often means death of the baby.

Oh, and then their is the high rate of obesity and type II diabetes (we have the highest rates in the world) - both increase preterm birth and death.

Answer 2

in 2009, the US CDC issued a report that stated that the American rates of infant mortality were affected by the United States' high rates of premature babies compared to European countries. It also outlined the differences in reporting requirements between the United States and Europe, noting that France, the Czech Republic, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Poland do not report all live births of babies under 500 g and/or 22 weeks of gestation.[6][9][10]

Answer 3

A number of different reasons, sometimes due to the way the health system is set up, lower income women often do not have insurance, so can't access pre natal care, which has a significant effect on infant mortality. Also, the more pregnancy interventions there are, the higher the mortality rate is, funnily enough. More high risk pregnancies are prolonged in countries like America, resulting in less miscarriages and pregnancy loss, and higher infant death rates.

Fertility treatment can often result in a poor outcome for the baby; for example, women who have assisted conception, conceive multiples more often, multiples are more likely to be premature or have other pregnancy complications, leading to increased death rate.

Prolonging a high risk pregnancy and delivering steroids or caesaring a baby who would have passed away in utero, miscarried or died during delivery results in the huge number of micro premmies delivered in America. In other countries without this high tech care, these babies would have died before birth, as it is they are born, but significant numbers do not survive for long.

Then there's all the social reasons, poor access to health care, poor living conditions (even in a first world country).

The high incidence of formula feeding also contributes to a higher death rate too.

Answer 4

Compared to other IMR around the world the US isn't so bad. only 6.3 in 1000 compared to 170 /1000 in sierra leone....Thanks JC for those article links, they were really informative.
When you think about how IMR is up to one year of age and all the pre-term births that happen and illness, its not such a high figure compared to 100 years ago.
I'm thankful that australias is only 4.4 in 1000 and that our healthcare system must be working . All in all, i think that because we have so much medical intervention available, more babies are surviving than dying. in US thats 993.6 per 1000 babies survive past one year.

Answer 5

If your check out the links below you will find out that the US rate is low, and yes other countries are lower, but look at how the countries measure infant death rate and what is considered infant rate rate. The reported rates are not measuring apples to apples .....

My comments are not to make it seems that we can do better, but that statistics are statistics and can be skewed. Also as we have more and more illegals give birth here to get citizenship the rate will rise, they come to Texas and other border states to have babies but come here with no prenatal care and other high risk factors ....

Take a minute to read the links ...


Additional comment: there are free clinics all over the US to help mothers ... many companies supply products to help expectant mothers .... not having a company paid insurance is not the reason

Answer 6

Having the best healthcare system doesn't make a bit of difference to the people who can't afford it.

Answer 7

i guess it would have something to do with the healthcare system. but you could also put it down to fetal alcohol syndrom, drug use, and pre exsiting disease.
Its a sad an unknown fact that the infant mortality rate is high, and that many women die in or due to childbirth, even with our medical advances.