US ranks 29th in Infant Mortality..behind Cuba

[strollingbones]

Oct. 15, 2008 -- The U.S. ranks 29th worldwide in infant mortality, tying Slovakia and Poland but lagging behind Cuba, the CDC reports.

Infant Mortality: U.S. Ranks 29th

"The U.S. infant mortality rate is higher than rates in most other developed countries," note CDC researchers Marian F. MacDorman, PhD, and T.J. Mathews. "The relative position of the United States in comparison to countries with the lowest infant mortality rates appears to be worsening."

this country cares about their children????

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Oct. 15, 2008 -- The U.S. ranks 29th worldwide in infant mortality, tying Slovakia and Poland but lagging behind Cuba, the CDC reports.

Infant Mortality: U.S. Ranks 29th

"The U.S. infant mortality rate is higher than rates in most other developed countries," note CDC researchers Marian F. MacDorman, PhD, and T.J. Mathews. "The relative position of the United States in comparison to countries with the lowest infant mortality rates appears to be worsening."

this country cares about their children????

No this is not even a proper comparison. The US counts births differently then other countries. In fact we probably count the MOST births as live births no matter the circumstance.

Are you aware some Countries do not count a birth AT ALL until the baby has lived X number of days? Premature births are not counted as are a slew of other conditions.

Show me the EXACT criteria for each country in determining births and then we can have a discussion.

 

[Truthmatters]

You made the claim they are differnt you provide evidence of what you claim.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

You made the claim they are differnt you provide evidence of what you claim.

No, YOU provide evidence they are the same or the figures are bogus. Simple enough. This has been discussed before on this board with the evidence provided for you idiots that the system is flawed for comparisons, The reports are totally controlled BY THE PROVIDING Nation. Each Nation choses how it counts what, when and why.

 

[Luissa]

No this is not even a proper comparison. The US counts births differently then other countries. In fact we probably count the MOST births as live births no matter the circumstance.

Are you aware some Countries do not count a birth AT ALL until the baby has lived X number of days? Premature births are not counted as are a slew of other conditions.

Show me the EXACT criteria for each country in determining births and then we can have a discussion.

The problem is some women cannot get Prenatal care due to lack of insurance! ANd even if we do rate it differently shouldn't we be number one if we have the most advance medical care in the world!

 

[xsited1]

All the liberals will be moving to Cuba now...

SWEET!

 

[elvis]

Oct. 15, 2008 -- The U.S. ranks 29th worldwide in infant mortality, tying Slovakia and Poland but lagging behind Cuba, the CDC reports.

Infant Mortality: U.S. Ranks 29th

"The U.S. infant mortality rate is higher than rates in most other developed countries," note CDC researchers Marian F. MacDorman, PhD, and T.J. Mathews. "The relative position of the United States in comparison to countries with the lowest infant mortality rates appears to be worsening."

this country cares about their children????

Obama would make the situation worse, but no one will be able to tell because the babies that suffocate after surviving abortions don't count as lives in Obama's mind.

 

[Luissa]

Obama would make the situation worse, but no one will be able to tell because the babies that suffocate after surviving abortions don't count as lives in Obama's mind.

Why don't you provide a number of the babies who are born alive from partial birth abortions. And the reason he voted against it, is the wording of the bill. SOmewhat like McCain not voting for funding for troops because of the wording and earmarks.
Almost all the countries which have some sort of socialized medicene rate higher then we do and spend less .

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Why don't you provide a number of the babies who are born alive from partial birth abortions. And the reason he voted against it, is the reading of the bill. SOmewhat like McCain not voting for funding for troops because of the wording and earmarks.
Almost all the countries which have some sort of socialized medicene rate higher then we do and spend less .

Because they do not count births the same as we do. Should be easy enough to provide evidence they do. Go for it.

 

[jodylee]

about time you nationalised your health care then.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

about time you nationalised your health care then.

Cause that works so well. Here is a story for ya out of Hawaii.

Hawaii ending universal child health care - Yahoo! News

Notice one of the reasons they cut coverage was cause people who COULD afford their own said " what the hell, why should I pay when they don't? And ended coverage to join the "free" one". And the State couldn't afford that.

 

[editec]

No, YOU provide evidence they are the same or the figures are bogus. Simple enough. This has been discussed before on this board with the evidence provided for you idiots that the system is flawed for comparisons, The reports are totally controlled BY THE PROVIDING Nation. Each Nation choses how it counts what, when and why.

You are right about that. That is a valid objection to these rankings.

However, I am informed that even when those differences are taken into account, the USA still doesn't have very good childbirth numbers in comparison to many other nations.

Mostly this has to do with the number of woman who are not getting prenatal care, rather than problems which happen during childbirth itself, I'd wager.

 

[strollingbones]

i posted this as a continum of the midwife question....

 

[Luissa]

Because they do not count births the same as we do. Should be easy enough to provide evidence they do. Go for it.

They also have a higher life expectancy, do they count that differently too?

 

[elvis]

Why don't you provide a number of the babies who are born alive from partial birth abortions. And the reason he voted against it, is the wording of the bill. SOmewhat like McCain not voting for funding for troops because of the wording and earmarks.
Almost all the countries which have some sort of socialized medicene rate higher then we do and spend less .

Roe wouldn't have been undermined. An identical bill went to the US senate shortly after and was approved 98-0.
The original reason he gave was that it puts a doctor in an awkward position after the mother ordered the doctor to kill the baby. Obama supports partial birth abortion.
Yes we can......
1. expand abortion.
2. obliterate the second amendment.
3. triple your taxes.

 

[Epsilon Delta]

29. United States 6.9

32. Puerto Rico 8.1

33. Chile 8.4

34. Costa Rica 9.0

Aww, we did even worse than the states in this one.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html

The CIA ranks the US 41st (you have to look at it bottom up), or pretty much at the bottom of advanced industrial countries. I'd need some convincing as to why I can't trust the US's own intelligence agency when looking at the figures.

 

[waltky]

Global child mortality on the decline...

UN: Child Mortality Rate Reduced by Half
September 13, 2013 — A new report says the number of global deaths among children under age five is almost half what it was 22 years ago. A joint report by the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization,and World Bank finds about 6.6 million children died before reaching their fifth birthday in 2012 compared to 12 million children who died in 1990.

The report calls the progress being made in cutting child deaths remarkable. However, it says this is still not good enough. It says most child deaths are preventable, and that by applying a number of simple, affordable measures, more children’s lives can be saved. Elizabeth Mason, director of the World Health Organization's department of maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, says the first 28 days of life are critical for a child’s survival. That, she says, is inextricably linked to the care the mother receives during pregnancy and, most importantly, the care she receives during labor, childbirth and the early hours of the baby’s life. “We have new low-cost solutions that can reduce deaths of pre-term babies by up to three-quarters. And these include anti-natal corticosteroid injections to the mother when she goes into pre-term labor, kangaroo mother-care where the baby is literally put into a pouch, but next to skin-to-skin care, next to the mother’s chest so that the baby can keep warm and can have early access to breast milk,” said Mason.

The leading causes of death among children under five years old include pneumonia, prematurity, birth asphyxia, diarrhea and malaria. Globally, WHO says about 45 percent of under-five deaths are linked to under-nutrition. The report says about half of under-five deaths occur in only five countries-China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan. It notes sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest child mortality rates in the world, with 98 deaths per 1,000 live births. It says a child born in sub-Saharan Africa faces more than 16 times the risk of dying before his or her fifth birthday than a child born in a wealthy country. At the same time, the report says the pace of decline in the number of annual deaths has quadrupled since 1990.

Women holding children wait for a medical examination at the health centre in Gbangbegouine village, western Ivory Coast

Mark Young, a senior adviser on health at the U.N. Children’s Fund, says overall economic development is helpful in reducing child mortality, but poor countries that have a good strategy can make significant gains. He cites the case of Niger, one of the poorest countries in West Africa. Two decades ago, he says, Niger had the highest rate of under-five mortality in the world. This, he says has been cut by nearly two-thirds. “They have done this through a series of targeted, focused, government-led initiatives that UNICEF has supported," he said. "They instituted a free health care policy for women and children, abolished user fees, so increased financial access. They expanded geographic access by establishing a series of rural health posts… staffed by community trained health workers to deliver essential maternal-newborn child health services at the peripheral level. They implemented a series of integrated mass campaigns to deliver a package of high impact preventive interventions.”

The package includes childhood immunization, vitamin A, and insecticide treated nets for malaria. Young says Niger also has set up an emergency nutrition program to address child malnutrition. The report notes other countries are also implementing life-saving interventions. It says Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger, Tanzania, Bangladesh and states in India are following strategies to reduce child deaths from pneumonia and diarrhea, which together kill two million children each year. These interventions providing antibiotics and oral rehydration salts, introducing new vaccines against these diseases and ensuring access to sanitation and safe drinking water.

UN: Child Mortality Rate Reduced by Half

See also:

Ethiopia Cuts Child Mortality by Two-Thirds
September 13, 2013 — The United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF, says Ethiopia has achieved one of the Millennium Development Goals of reducing child mortality by more than two-thirds.

Ethiopia reduced its under-five mortality rate by 67 percent between 1990 and 2012, meeting the target for one of the Millennium Development Goals on child survival. The announcement came after UNICEF released its latest report on child survival Friday. Ethiopia’s Minister of Health Dr. Kesetebirhan Admasu welcomed the positive results, but admitted that despite the improvements Ethiopia is still considered a high-mortality country: “If you look at the absolute number of children dying in Ethiopia, it is still huge. We have committed to end all preventive child deaths in a generation by 2035. And we have developed a roadmap to reach that ambitious target," said Admasu.

Diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria are the leading causes of death among young children in Ethiopia. In 1990, the country's mortality rate for children under five was one of the highest in the world at 204 per 1,000 births. That rate now stands at 68 per 1,000, meaning hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian children who might have died in earlier years now reach their fifth birthday. Ethiopia is one of four African countries, next to Tanzania, Liberia and Malawi, to already have achieved the Millennium Development Goal.

Women and children crowd around the public water taps at the Dollo Ado refugee transit facility in Ethiopia

One of the reasons Ethiopia has done so well is because of its Health Extension Program, through which 38,000 health workers were employed all over the country providing health care services to a large part of the rural population. UNICEF representative to Ethiopia Peter Salama said that Ethiopia’s approach can serve as an example for other countries: “Several other African countries have come to do study tours, including delegations from Togo, Guinea, Namibia - all came to study the health extension program and see how they can replicate this critical lesson of bringing health care to the doorstep of the rural population," said Salama.

Progress on the Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality is slow in most countries, with only 13 out of 61 countries on track. The Millennium Development Goals were introduced in 2000 by the United Nations, focusing on issues such as fighting extreme poverty.

Ethiopia Cuts Child Mortality by Two-Thirds

 

[waltky]

Stillborn deaths decreasing...

WHO Study Reports Fewer Childbirth Deaths
May 06, 2014 — A new World Health Organization study finds maternal deaths due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth have been cut nearly in half over the past 24 years. But WHO says most countries will not meet the 2015 Millennium Development goal of reducing maternal deaths by two-thirds.

New U.N. data show 45 percent more mothers are surviving childbirth today than in 1990. Last year, 289,000 women died from complications compared to 523,000 in 1990 the study found. A second related World Health Organization Study noted the causes of maternal deaths have changed. In 1990, women were dying of bleeding, infections and high blood pressure in pregnancy. The study found that now, more than one in four maternal deaths are due to pre-existing medical conditions, such as diabetes, HIV, malaria and obesity. Marleen Temmerman, WHO's Director of Reproductive Health and Research co-authored the study. She said the incidence of non-communicable diseases is increasing throughout the world, and that conditions such as obesity and diabetes get worse during pregnancy and can be life threatening.

Temmerman said Sub-Saharan Africa is still the riskiest region for dying of complications in pregnancy and childbirth. “If you look at what is the lifetime risk for a woman, for a girl to die during pregnancy and childbirth, then it is one in 40 in Sub-Saharan Africa as compared to one in 3,500 approximately, in, for example Europe or the Western world,” she said. The World Health Organization says although steady progress is being made in reducing maternal deaths, there has been too little progress in preventing adolescent pregnancies, abortions, maternal deaths, sexually-transmitted infections and HIV in the last 20 years.

World Health Organization study on maternal deaths

The lack of availability to quality comprehensive sexual education and services for young people, especially in poor countries is partially to blame, according to the study. It noted that more than 15 million girls aged 15 - 19 give birth every year and that many of these pregnancies result from non-consensual sex. According to the report, 10 countries account for about 60 percent of global maternal deaths. They include India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Tanzania, Kenya, China, and Uganda. The study said the highest lifetime risk of maternal death is in Somalia and Chad. Eleven countries are on track to achieve the MDG target of cutting maternal deaths by 75 percent.

WHO Coordinator of Adolescents and At-risk Populations Team, Lale Say, told VOA there is no magic formula in achieving these results. “For example, Rwanda - one of the biggest push for Rwanda to handle the maternal deaths has been to the scaling up family planning services nationwide and a big improvement in the use of contraception in family planning services," Say explained.

Dr. Say said Cambodia cut its maternal death rate by increasing childbirth deliveries in health facilities and upgrading the skills of health workers. Fewer mothers are dying in Nepal since it legalized abortions and has been encouraging women to give birth in health facilities, Say said. According to WHO interventions such as access to family planning facilities and contraception, midwifery services and the availability of health workers and equipment and medicines can save the lives of women and their newborn babies.

WHO Study Reports Fewer Childbirth Deaths

See also:

Report: Millions of Maternal and Child Deaths Can Be Prevented
May 05, 2014 — The international aid agency Save the Children says millions of maternal and child deaths can be prevented by improving access to health care and other essential services. The agency’s annual State of the World’s Mothers report ranks 178 countries on how likely mothers are to survive childbirth.

Save the Children reports 800 mothers and 18,000 young children die from largely preventable causes every day. It said more than half of these deaths occur in high-risk places of conflict and natural disaster. The agency’s 2014 Mother’s Index Rankings of 178 countries bears this out. Finland is the best place to be a mother, followed by other European and Western countries in the top 10. Somalia is at the bottom, along with nine other African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, and the Central African Republic, that rank as the worst places for maternal and child survival. For example, the report notes one Chadian woman in 15 is likely to die because of pregnancy, compared with one Swedish woman in 14,000. And, it notes, a child in Sierra Leone has one chance in five of not living until age five, compared with an Icelandic child, where the risk is one in 435.

The director of Save the Children in Geneva, Anita Bay Bundegaard, told VOA these rankings do not change much from year to year. She said the same sub-Saharan African countries continue to appear on the bottom of the list. “They have a recent history of armed conflict. They are considered to be fragile states and many of them are also affected by recurring natural disasters… What we need to ensure in those countries are that mothers and newborns have access to high quality health care… We also need more investment in women and girls to ensure that they are better protected during emergencies,” said Bundegaard. Bundegaard agrees it is difficult for countries wracked by war, instability and extreme poverty to provide the care needed to save new mothers and young children. But, she said, it can be done if governments have the political will.

A mother carries her baby wrapped in a blanket in Beijing.

She cited the examples of Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Nepal, which have greatly reduced mother and child deaths through sustained political and financial commitment. All three are either in conflict or rebuilding from conflicts. She said these countries also have improved access to education for girls, which protects them from getting married at an early age. She said girls who have babies at a young age are at greater risk of dying and losing their babies. “It also a very simple thing like training midwives, to have a very good and high immunization coverage or it can be to remove user fees so that people do not have to pay to get access to health care. These are some of the things that we have seen in Afghanistan, in Nepal, in Ethiopia where things are considerably changed and improved,” said Bundegaard.

The report notes concerted efforts by Afghanistan and Ethiopia have reduced maternal deaths by almost two-thirds since 2000. The Mothers Index also shows that some Western countries are not doing as well as they should and are falling behind other wealthy countries. It finds the United States, which is ranked 31, is among countries that have made the least progress since 2000 on maternal and child survival. It said the risk that a 15-year-old girl in the U.S. will die during her lifetime from a pregnancy-related cause has increased by over 50 percent since 2000, and American women face the same risk of maternal death as those in Iran or Romania.

Report: Millions of Maternal and Child Deaths Can Be Prevented

 

[auditor0007]

Because they do not count births the same as we do. Should be easy enough to provide evidence they do. Go for it.

They also have a higher life expectancy, do they count that differently too?

We have a higher homicide and accidental death rate that brings our numbers down. Of course, neither of those are things to be bragging about either.

 

[DGS49]

...just LOVE to trot out these infant mortality numbers and lifespan numbers. It "proves" that the social democracies of Europe and Japan are superior to the u.s.

There are basically two factors behind the high infant mortality rates. The method of counting (as mentioned above) and the large u.s. incidence of teen births.

But really, folks, when you are killing hundreds of thousands of babies every year ON PURPOSE, who gives a shit about a couple of infant deaths?