Why infant death rates have doubled in Mississippi and are rising across the US

Mississippi declared a public health emergency in 2024 after rising to 9.7 deaths per 1000 live birth, and almost twice the national an average of 5.6. But Mississippi is not alone. Black babies across the USA die at much higher rates than white peers in cities, even in world -class hospitals such as Boston.

The infant mortality rate (IMR) is a statistical measure of the number of deaths of infants under the age of 1000 live in a particular population and time period.

Since 2014, more than 3,500 Mississippi baby died before reaching their first birthdays. He organized discussions about how worrying increase, poverty, health care access and systemic inequalities continue to direct preventive infant deaths throughout the country.

What’s behind rising infant deaths?

According to reports, the leading causes behind the rising infant mortality in the United States include preterm birth, low birth weight, congenital defects and sudden infant death syndrome.

The situation becomes even more complex with federal financing cuts. Programs such as Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (Prams), which helps monitoring mother and baby health behaviors for decades, have backward situations, leaving less tools to detect trends or intervene early. Analysts warn that without such data, policies are facing the risk of “blind flying”.

However, public health experts warn that focus only on medical care has missed deeper driving forces such as poverty, unstable housing and lack of access to consistent mother health services. The expansion situations such as Louisiana and Arkansas have seen significant decreases especially in baby mortality among black families. Black babies in Yakeneral, Mississippi are likely to die of white babies in the early years. In addition to medical care, the US faces the risk of worsening differences in baby survival without fighting systemic inequalities.