Infant Mortality Rate Rose 3% Last Year, Reversing Trend Of Last 20 Years
CDC data show that the rate of babies dying was higher between 2021 and 2022 than in the two decades prior, when mortality rates consistently dropped. The U.S. rate is double that of many developed countries.
The Wall Street Journal:
The Death Rate For Babies In America Rose For The First Time In 20 Years
The rate of babies dying in the U.S. increased significantly for the first time in two decades, raising new alarms about maternal-infant health in America. The nation’s infant-mortality rate rose 3% from 2021 to 2022, reversing a decadeslong overall decline, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. The rate increased from 5.44 infant deaths for every 1,000 births to 5.6 in 2022, a statistically significant uptick. (Essley Whyte, 11/1)
AP:
The US Infant Mortality Rate Rose Last Year. The CDC Says It's The Largest Increase In Two Decades
The U.S. infant mortality rate rose 3% last year — the largest increase in two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. White and Native American infants, infant boys and babies born at 37 weeks or earlier had significant death rate increases. The CDC’s report, published Wednesday, also noted larger increases for two of the leading causes of infant deaths — maternal complications and bacterial meningitis. (Stobbe, 11/1)
NBC News:
Infant Mortality Rose In 2022 For The First Time In Two Decades
"Every time we’ve measured infant mortality, it has trended down, and what’s changed? Covid. It’s disrupted all the community support we developed that helped women access prenatal care," Gabbe said. ... "One of the leading factors that contribute to babies born too small and babies born too early is stress," Hackett said. ... “I look at this data and it breaks my heart as a pediatrician, of course. But I also could tell you that anybody who’s in the reproductive health space could and did warn that this is the type of data we were going to start seeing when we took away the federal protections to abortion access,” Wilkinson said. (Bendix, 11/1)
CNN:
US Infant Mortality Rate Rises For First Time In More Than 20 Years
“We live in a country with significant resources, so the infant mortality rate and the increase are shockingly high,” wrote Dr. Sandy Chung, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in an email to CNN. “As pediatricians who help children grow into healthy adults, any death of any child is one too many. The infant mortality rate in this country in unacceptable.” (Viswanathan, 11/1)
