More needed to save Maryland babies

Maryland (Map, News) - Maryland’s infant mortality rate may be dropping, but officials say black infants are dying at an unacceptable rate and more needs to be done.

“If infant mortality is a good indicator of public health, then Maryland should be ashamed of itself,” said Alma Roberts, president of Baltimore City Healthy Start Inc., a group that promotes healthy babies.

Maryland has seen its infant mortality rate drop in the past 10 years, but only slightly, and still remains above the national average, officials said. America is ranked 27th out of 35 developed countries.

Maryland’s two largest black population centers, Baltimore City and Prince George’s, saw the black infant mortality rate drop between 1997 and 2006.

But Howard, Anne Arundel, Frederick, Calvert and many Eastern Shore counties, which have smaller black populations, saw their rates rise slightly, officials said.

Though “statistically small,” the rates “are not heading in the right direction,” said Isabelle Horon, director of the Maryland Vital Statistics Administration.

Anne Arundel’s rate nearly tripled between 2005 and 2006, and even the more reliable method of looking at five-year periods saw the county’s rate increase 5 percent since 1997.

Recent attention to the growing number of black infant deaths in wealthier counties, like Anne Arundel, may bring more widespread attention a major cause of infant deaths, Roberts said — poverty among black women.

Maryland — as well as the nation as a whole — has invested much in neonatal care to help save premature babies, the main cause of black infant death, said Bernard Guyer, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and expert in infant mortality.

But if more money was spent on health education, family planning and targeting pregnant women at risk for premature births, it would have an “incremental effect” on the death rate, Guyer said. “We know enough to do more than we’re doing."

Anne Arundel’s Health Department has started a public health education campaign targeting the county’s black communities.

In Baltimore City, the Family League of Baltimore will unveil an 18-month effort between city and state health officials in September to educate the public on caring for infants.

A Baltimore committee reviewed each case of black infant deaths and found many died from being placed in improper sleeping positions, so officials better targeted their outreach, Guyer said.

jflanagan@baltimoreexaminer.com

Infant Mortality

The following are infant mortality rates per 1,000 births and the number of infant deaths:

Baltimore City

- Total: 12.4 (121)

- Blacks: 14.8 (100)

Baltimore County

- Total: 7 (70)

- Blacks: 7.6 (23)

Anne Arundel

- Total: 7 (55)

- Blacks: 21.4 (25)

Carroll

- Total: 4.3 (8)

- Blacks: N/A (1)

Howard

- Total: 5.3 (18)

- Blacks: 10.9 (7)

Harford

- Total: 5.9 (18)

- Blacks: N/A (2)

State

- Total: 7.9 (615)

- Blacks 12.7 (325)

Source: Maryland Vital Statistics Administration

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