REFLECTION PAPER 2: WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS In this episode of Unnatural Causes, I learned that infant mortality rates (IMR) among African Americans are twice as high as among white Americans. African Americans tend to have smaller babies at birth and also have more babies born before term than women of other races in America. This phenomenon is seen even when factors such as education and income have been controlled for. In fact, it was stated in the documentary that the more educated or higher up the socio-economic ladder an African American woman was, the more likely she would deliver a pre-term baby or have a baby with low birth weight. To prove this occurrence was not just due to genetics, the rate of infant mortality among African immigrants …show more content…
The accumulation of stressful events which occurred as an African American woman growing up in America (due to racism) lead to the release of stress hormones, and the constant presence of these stress hormones start to affect her body physiology which can be seen during pregnancy. When such hormones reach a certain level, they can alter the blood vessels in the placenta thus reducing the amount of nutrients the fetus receives. This is one of the causes of low birth weight babies. Also, the high amount of stress hormones can trigger labor earlier than expected thus leading to pre-term deliveries. So, it is important to address causes of these long-term and chronic stressful events in African American women. The impact of racism on these women cannot be ignored as such high infant mortality rates and low birth weight babies are matters of public health importance. One of the indicators of good health care in a country is the number of healthy babies born. The United States of America has one of the worst infant mortality rates among developed or first world countries, with preterm births being the second cause of infant mortality
Infant mortality is considered a worldwide indicator of a nation’s health status. The United States still ranks 24th in infant mortality compared with other industrialized nations, even though infant mortality has declined steadily over the past several decades. Compared with the national average in 1996 of 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, the largest disparity is among blacks with a death rate of 14.2 per 1,000 in 1996 which is almost 2½ times that of white infants (6 deaths per 1,000 in 1996). American Indians as a whole have an infant death rate of 9 deaths per 1,000 in 1995, but some Indian communities have an infant mortality rate almost twice that of the national rate. The same applies to the Hispanic community, whose rate of 7.6 deaths per 1,000 births in 1995 doesn’t reflect the Puerto Rican community, whose rate was 8.9 deaths per 1,000 births in 1995.
Paul, D.A., Locke, R., Zook, K., Leef, K.H., Stefano, J.L. & Colmorgan, G. (2006). Racial
Both white and non-white youth in poverty experience a higher rate of teenage pregnancy, AIDS, and tend to live in single-parent homes.
Although there are many factors that affect the development of the fetus, research on the specific effects of prenatal maternal stress and the resulting negative outcomes for the development of the fetus will be reviewed. While there is knowledge of these harmful effects in scientific and medical communities, researchers are still in the midst of discovering the results of these negative effects on human development. An overall review of the literature suggests that this topic is still relatively new in research as most of the articles make note that despite the amount of current research studies, there are still many unanswered questions.
“Racial and ethnic disparities are the differences in the rate of incidence, prevalence, mortality, and burden of diseases and other adverse health conditions that exist among specific racial and ethnic population groups” (Kominski, 2014, p. 95).
It is nearly twice as high as white American women. Even well-educated black women have more birth outcomes worse than white women who haven’t even finished high school.
As a first world country American infants should have a seemingly better start at life than many other countries. In recent decades America has made a strident effort in the progress towards lower Infant mortality rates resulting in a decline from 12.1-6.2 ( ). However, there is a concerning disparity between white American babies and black American babies in terms of infant mortality. The current Infant mortality rate for non-Hispanic white women is 5.11 deaths per 1,000 births. For Non-Hispanic black women the rate is 11.42 deaths per 1,000 births.. A high rate of infant mortality is seen equally in African Americans across the strata of the racial group showing no prejudice to SES, education, and other intrinsic factors such as education or access to health care. African American infant mortality rates are a severe social disparity in modern America as compared to other minority and non-minority groups regardless of SES, educational status, and age. This alarmingly oppositional data is both puzzling and startling to public health professionals and doctors alike as they attempt to determine a direct cause for such a devastating disparity
Williams, D. R., & Jackson, P. (2014, April 1). Health Affairs. Social Sources Of Racial Disparities In Health. Retrieved April 29, 2014, from http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/24/2/325.short
Dehlendorf, Christine, Lisa H. Harris, and Tracy A. Weitz. "Disparities in Abortion Rates: A Public Health Approach." American Journal of Public Health 103.10 (2013): 1772-779. Print.
begins before they are born. Pregnant women of low income are less likely to seek prenatal help
Seeking to position lower socioeconomic status above racial/ethnic biases or vice versa is irresponsible to the goal of eliminating healthcare delivery differences at large. Both these are realities of a group of people who are not receiving the same level of care from the healthcare professionals although they exist within one of the most resource rich countries in the world, the United States. According to House & Williams (2000), “racism restricts and truncates socioeconomic attainment” (page, 106). This alone will hinder good health and spur on disparities as racism reduces the level of education and income as well as the prospect of better jobs. Blacksher (2008) cites the nation’s institutionalized racism as one of the leading factors
In this study Krieger used a scientific method to demonstrate the impact of health inequalities due to discrimination. She also used embodiment a key concept in ecosocial theory to explain how/why there are inequalities in infant mortality in the United States.
Over the years, research shows that lighter African American have had a higher level of attainment, shaping there social and economic stratification. Many blacks of lighter skin tone have had an advantage...
With a wide variety of studies and research, it has been shown that socioeconomic status can affect a child’s health even before they are born. This theory comes from a study by Hackman, Farah and Meaney (2010) in which researchers identified three classes of mechanism that SES effects on cognitive development. The first class that they recognized is the prenatal influences. If a low- SES mother does...
Based on 2010 United States Census Bureau statistics, minorities living in inner cities with a high school diploma or lower education level have an average of one more child per household than their white, suburban, and college educated peers. The argument could be made that raising children carries a financial burden, so low income families deciding to have children would seem an unwise choice. So why does their population continue to grow knowing this? Based on additional demographic data provided by the 2010 United States Cens...