During recent debates about healthcare reform you may have heard talk about how the U.S. ranks # 30 in term of infants who die during pregnancy or within one year of birth. This might be especially concerning if you are pregnant. In November 2009, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention completed a detailed analysis comparing infant mortality in the U.S. to other countries and found that “The main cause of the United States’ high infant mortality rate when compared with Europe is the very high percentage of preterm births in the United States.” (The full report is available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db23.pdf.)
You can take some comfort that the quality of care for most women in the U.S. is comparable to countries with much lower infant mortality rates. Most women in the U.S. do not have a known risk for a preterm birth. If your doctor identifies that you have a risk for a preterm birth, it is important to work with him or her to manage these risks.
Higher preterm birth rates in the U.S. have been associated with African American women and women with few economic resources. For these women, getting prenatal care and having a doctor or certified nurse midwife to support them is very important.
