Poor U.S. Infant survival rates

Comparing neonatal care in four developing countries.

“When compared with the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, the United States has the largest workforce dedicated to neonatal care, it has 4.9 times the number of neonatal intensive care beds as the United Kingdom, and the combined number of intensive care and intermediate care beds is twice as large as it is in Australia and Canada. Yet a recent study shows that U.S. infants don't have proportionately better survival rates: the infant morality (the number of deaths in the first year of life per 1,000 live births) and the neonatal mortality rate (the number of deaths in the first 28 days per 1,000 births) are higher in the United States than they are in the other three countries. These findings refute the effectiveness of the current U.S. funding emphasis on neonatal care and make a case for more funding for preconception and prenatal care.”

	Infant mortality rate(per 1,000 live births)	Neonatal mortality rate(per 1,000 live births)
United States	7.1	4.7
United Kingdom	5.5	3.8
Canada	5.3	3.7
Australia	1.3	3.0

“One explanation offered by the study's authors is that the other three nations place more emphasis on preconception and prenatal care than the United States does. While Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada all proved universal health coverage, 38.8 million Americans (14.1%) are uninsured, with women and children disproportionately affected.”

“Another report supports these recommendations. It's a summary of a 1997 conference held by the Harvard Center for Children's Health and supported by a grant from Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, at which participants were charged with identifying measures to prevent premature births, intrauterine growth restriction, and congenital malformations. Although the presenters did so, they also acknowledged that these interventions have be of limited value because the factors posing the greatest risk to the fetus often occur too early in pregnancy for the interventions to be effective. The conference participants concluded that for prenatal care to be successful, more attention should be paid to improving women's health care and promoting healthful habits.”

Source: Thompson LA, et al. Pediatrics 2002; 109(6):1036-43; McCormick MC, Siegel JE. Ambul Pediatr 2001;1(6);321-5

Over 1.3 trillion dollars was spent on health care in the United States last year. That's more than 13% of our gross national product. Most of that money was spent on treating diseases rather than on prevention. In this study we can see that despite the massive amounts of money being spent on a private care system, the United States has an abysmal infant mortality. A rate that is over 5 times that of Australia! With a growing number of people being overweight at epidemic proportions (JAMA. 2002;288:1723-172) we obviously need to focus on the health of our nation including mothers before and after conception. Proper healthy eating with a large amount of fresh fruits and vegetables, juicing, vitamins, exercise, stress management, and other factors would go a long way to improving everyone's health and decreasing the number of child deaths. We need to de-emphasize the medical model for pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and childbirth and focus as a society on the essentials of proper health. Until that time, this tragedy will continue.

ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.