Infant Mortality

This presentation reviews infant mortality in the U.S., showing long-term declines but persistent racial, ethnic, and regional disparities. Neonatal deaths have fallen more steeply than postneonatal deaths, yet non-Hispanic Black infants continue to die at more than twice the rate of non-Hispanic Whites, while Asian infants fare best. State-level differences are stark, and international comparisons place the U.S. at or near the bottom among wealthy nations, even for White births. The presentation highlights maternal factors such as age, parity, and BMI, and stresses that infant and maternal mortality are closely linked