For the first time in more than two decades, infant mortality rate in the United States went up in 2022.
According to a report from the National Center for Health Statistics, the rate jumped by 3% from 2021.
In 2021, the rate was consistent with 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic started.
Infant mortality is a telling metric for public health experts. The rate is used as a benchmark for a country’s health system.
Last year’s statistics showed that racial groups experienced different rates of infant mortality. While infant mortality rates for white babies increased by 3%, mortality rates for American Indian or Alaska Native babies rose by more than 20%. The rates didn’t rise as much for Black infants, but they had the highest overall mortality rate, with nearly 11 deaths per 1,000 births. That’s double the rate for white infants.
The report did not delve into all of the reasons behind the upward trend.
It did note that maternal complications and bacterial sepsis, or infection, were responsible for a greater rate of newborn deaths than before. Preeclampsia and diabetes have also been on the rise.
And experts say accessibility challenges — caused by poverty or sheer distance from a hospital equipped to handle childbirth — lead to fewer prenatal care visits and thus higher-risk pregnancies.
The report found that the infant mortality rate in 2022 increased for mothers between ages 25 and 29. It also rose for preterm babies and for boys.
Ultimately, where you are born matters. Mortality rates climbed for babies born in Georgia, Iowa, Missouri and Texas. Nevada, however, saw its infant mortality rate decline.