According to recent data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the infant mortality rate in the U.S. is on the rise for the first time in decades. The data covers deaths of babies under a year old, with 20,577 U.S. infants dying in 2022 alone. Researchers noted 5.6 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births, a 3% increase from the prior year.
Since the agency began consistently tracking data in 1995, infant mortality had been generally tracking downwards, with 2022 becoming the first year since 2002 to have a “statistically significant increase,” according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
It’s not just babies in the U.S. that face a disproportionately high mortality rate. According to a recent study published by JAMA Pediatrics, children and teens under age 19 are dying at higher rates than their counterparts in other wealthy countries, with “excess deaths” accounting for about 20,000 per year.
These deaths also disproportionately impact Black and Indigenous children, especially infants, who face worse outcomes due to racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic disparities in resources and care.
Pediatric healthcare in the U.S. leaves many families without adequate support during those crucial first weeks and months at home with baby, but it’s communities of color who suffer the most, as Dr. James Greenberg, co-director of the Perinatal Institute at Cincinnati Children’s and co-founder of Cradle Cincinnati, pointed out to ABC News.
“This has been a rather intractable problem in the United States… and the disparities between white and non-Hispanic, Black infant mortality and white and American Indian/Alaska Native infant mortality are quite striking and continue to be very, very troubling,” he said, calling the Black infant mortality rate “extraordinary” and “on par with some parts of the world that have very limited resources.”
But pediatric healthcare is only one piece of the puzzle contributing to such high infant death rates. Maternal mortality and birth complications are a big factor, causing a 9% spike in infant deaths from 2021 to 2022 alone. The Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade is another possible factor, particularly in states impacted by abortion bans, as research has shown.
COVID infections during pregnancy are also believed to play a role, with pregnant patients experiencing a much higher risk of hospitalization and intensive care, as well as other complications from preeclampsia, blood clots, and high blood pressure than those who didn’t have a COVID infection. Greenberg also believes a post-COVID spike in RSV, flu, and other upper respiratory illnesses could be a link.
Aside from the mother’s health and well-being during pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum, other causes include: congenital malformations (which led to nearly 1 in 5 deaths), complications caused by disorders related to early birth and low birth weight, as well as sudden infant death syndrome and unintentional injuries.
Altogether, it paints a bleak—and senseless—picture of how woefully inadequate the care that new parents and infants receive is. In a nation with as much wealth as the United States, there’s simply no reason why so many moms and babies are dying.
