Effort underway to address Bootheel's high infant mortality

SIKESTON, Mo. -- The infant mortality rate in the Bootheel region of Missouri is among the highest in the nation, prompting an education effort aimed at keeping babies safe.

The Standard-Democrat reported a child born in a six-county area of the southeast corner of Missouri is less likely to survive its first year than a child born in Romania, Tonga or Botswana.

The U.S. infant mortality rate is 5.9 deaths per 1,000. The Missouri rate is 6.5 deaths per 1,000.

In some areas of the Bootheel, the mortality rate is as high as 11.7 deaths per 1,000.

Over the past eight years, 135 babies have died in Dunklin, New Madrid, Mississippi, Pemiscot, Stoddard and Scott counties.

The Bootheel Babies & Families organization is promoting safe-sleep education for parents and caregivers.

Project-management coordinator Robert Turner said babies should sleep alone on their back and in a crib or other safe sleep surface.

"The majority of infant deaths in the Bootheel -- about 50 percent in 2016 -- are attributable to unsafe sleep habits such as bed sharing and suffocation," Turner said.

Sarah Ezell, chairwoman of the Bootheel Babies & Families steering committee, said several organizations are working to keep babies safe and decrease the high mortality rate.