Infant Mortality

This presentation traces infant mortality trends in the U.S., highlighting long-term declines alongside persistent and profound disparities by race, ethnicity, geography, and maternal characteristics. It examines historical developments in data collection, compares neonatal and postneonatal mortality, and explores differences by maternal age, parity, and BMI. The presentation emphasizes that non-Hispanic Black infants face mortality rates more than double those of non-Hispanic Whites and over triple those of Asians. State-level data reveal stark regional disparities, while international comparisons show the U.S. lags behind peer nations—even when limiting analysis to White births. The presentation underscores the links between infant and maternal mortality, challenging narratives that attribute poor outcomes to population diversity alone.