Any thoughts of USA infant mortality rate

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I was reading an article that ranked USA 169th in infant mortality rates, and was surprised that America is far behind other developed nations. I'd like to hear some thoughts on this from American nurses working in this area as to why.

The article suggested that part of the reason had to do with so many births being induced to fit into a schedule, and it was ultimately tied into saving money.

It's the first I've heard anything about this, so your thoughts welcome.

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Specializes in Oncology.

What are other countries defining as a viable infant birth, and thus one that would count toward their infant mortality statistic? What about the U.S.? Get back to me on that. Infant mortality definitions were not standardized, last I knew, and thus are not very meaningful for comparison purposes.

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I don't know, that's why I'm asking. I have no idea how any country defines it. I understand if this subject makes people defensive, but I'm only asking.

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Specializes in Oncology.

Seeing as I've never cared for an infant on my life, outside of babysitting (which I am proud to say I've never had a child die on my watch there), I have no reason to feel defensive toward infant mortality rates. I think you're reading into my words too much. But if you're interested in starting another controversial thread, I'd like to see it fact based.

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Seeing as I've never cared for an infant on my life, outside of babysitting (which I am proud to say I've never had a child die on my watch there), I have no reason to feel defensive toward infant mortality rates. I think you're reading into my words too much. But if you're interested in starting another controversial thread, I'd like to see it fact based.

Well I'm glad to hear you're not defensive, and that's the problem with the written word, it can be taken many different ways.

But I'm certainly not trying to be controversial - and I did ask for thoughts from people who work in this area.

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Products - Data Briefs - Number 23 - November 2009

Here is a CDC article that talks about the lousy US infant mortality rate (yes, there are third world countries that have better numbers than us) and how the rates are calculated in European countries. According to the article, even accounting for minor differences in defining and caluculating "infant mortality," the US is still doing significantly worse than Europe.

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Specializes in Emergency.

A quick google of your question shows no definitive answers. So let the conjecture begin...

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical/Float Pool/Stepdown.

I work in the adult Med-Surg world but I do know that my hospital has about a 50% C-section rate which has stayed pretty steady over the ten years that I've been there. I don't know if this ties into our customer service scores or not but I'm guessing that it does. :facepalm:

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I work in the adult Med-Surg world but I do know that my hospital has about a 50% C-section rate which has stayed pretty steady over the ten years that I've been there. I don't know if this ties into our customer service scores or not but I'm guessing that it does. :facepalm:

ok....but how does this relate to the topic of infant mortality?

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The USA is first world and third world combined.

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A link would have been nice.

I have never looked into things.. But I have some an idea.

America saves babies as young as 22 weeks gestation. I'm gonna guess those babies have the odds stacked against them.

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Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.

Here are a few articles found. Granted, they aren't scholarly but I think they present the information in an intelligent manner.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr63/nvsr63_05.pdf

Why American Babies Die - The Atlantic

Our infant mortality rate is a national embarrassment - The Washington Post

U.S. infant mortality rate worse than other countries - CBS News

I have to wonder if the rampant pre-natal drug use in the US has something to do with our abysmal rates. It must have some impact. I find it interesting that in one of these articles it mentions that the US has such advanced prenatal care babies who would have been miscarried are surviving but often being born extrmely premature. How ironic is that? Good prenatal care=higher infant mortality rate.

In addition mention is made that while the US considers extremely premature babies born with a heartbeat, even with no chance of survival for more than minutes, a "live" birth while the European countries do not. This could definitely skew the statistics.

A previous poster also pointed out the percentage of c-sections her hospital does. Someone did not see how that is related but the US does have a higher rate of elective c-sections done and people are beginning to notice a trend with these babies having more problems than those who are allowed a natural course of pregnancy and delivery. I think there was even a thread here not too long ago discussing changing the definition of full-term to 39 or maybe 40 weeks because of the sequelae of early delivery.

At any rate I think this is an interesting topic to discuss. Especially with our European peers who are on this forum.

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