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Preemies Raise U.S. Infant Mortality Rate
Nov. 3, 2009 -- The high percentage of preterm babies is the main cause of the high infant mortality rate in the U.S., the CDC says in a new report.
The U.S. “does a good job of saving babies when they are born preterm,” Marian F. MacDorman, PhD, of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, tells WebMD. “The problem we have is prevention, preventing that preterm birth, and that’s where we are in trouble, I think.”
Based on 2005 data, one in eight births in the U.S. was preterm, compared with one in 18 in Ireland and Finland, says the report in the CDC’s NCHS Data Brief No. 23.
In the U.S., 6.9 babies died out of every 1,000 live births, placing America near the bottom in a comparison of selected countries.
Infant Mortality Rate per 1,000 Live Births
Here are infant mortality rankings, showing the U.S. ranking far below countries in Europe and the Far East.
Singapore 2.1
Sweden 2.4
Hong Kong 2.4
Japan 2.8
Finland 3.0
Norway 3.1
Czech Republic 3.4
Portugal 3.5
France 3.6
Belgium 3.7
Greece 3.8
Germany 3.9
Ireland 4.0
Spain 4.1
Switzerland 4.2
Denmark 4.4
Israel 4.6
Italy 4.7
Netherlands 4.9
England and Wales 5.0
Australia 5.0
New Zealand 5.1
Scotland 5.2
Canada 5.4
Hungary 6.2
Cuba 6.2
Northern Ireland 6.3
Poland 6.4
United States 6.9
Slovakia 7.2
Preterm Births Driving Infant Mortality Rate
MacDorman tells WebMD “the climate of medical management has changed over the past 15 to 20 years” in the U.S. “Back in the day, if a woman had high blood pressure, they might put her in the hospital and wait until the baby is more mature. Now the docs seem more likely to want to deliver the baby early.”
She says infant mortality in the U.S. is a “major public health problem, and it’s not improving.”
The U.S. infant mortality rate, MacDorman and colleagues report in the article, is mainly attributable to an increase in preterm births. Preterm births are at much higher risk for death or disability than full-term births.
“We don’t know why the preterm rate is so much higher than in Europe,” MacDorman tells WebMD. “But teens, older mothers, smokers all have higher preterm rates.” The percentage of preterm births in 2004 was 12.4% for the U.S., which was much higher than the selected European countries, such as 5.5% for Ireland, 6.3% for France, and 8.9% for Germany.
When births after less than 22 weeks are excluded, the U.S. and other countries show a drop in infant deaths in 2004. However, the U.S. still has an infant mortality rate higher than most European countries, with nearly twice the rate of Sweden and Norway.
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