Infant mortality worse in Bootheel than many underdeveloped countries

SIKESTON, Mo. — Babies born in Missouri’s Bootheel have less chance of surviving their first year of life than those born in many underdeveloped countries.

Southern and Midwestern states have the highest infant-mortality rates, defined as the death of children before their first birthday. According to America Health Rankings, Missouri ranks 32nd in the U.S. with an infant rate of mortality of 6.6 per 1,000 live births. Mississippi is listed as the worst with an IMR of 9.3.

“This is an opportunity to emphasize to our communities that infant mortality affects everyone,” said Jayne Dees, health-department director in New Madrid County, where the IMR rate is 10.7. “The impact extends across the region from an emotional, financial and relationship standpoint, not just touching individual families.”

In 2013, two Southeast Missouri organizations, Missouri Bootheel Regional Consortium and Bootheel Network for Health Improvement, joined to form the backbone in the fight against infant mortality.

They created Bootheel Babies and Families as a comprehensive community effort focused on reducing infant-mortality rates in six Bootheel counties.

The Bootheel counties — Dunklin, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Scott and Stoddard — represent some of the country’s worst IMRs.

According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, 9.26 deaths per 1,000 births was the yearly average in the Bootheel between 2003 and 2013 — significantly higher than the national average.

“If you compare even the state of Mississippi with some Bootheel counties, where the infant mortality rate is as high as 11.7, it’s clear we’re facing a critical problem in Southeast Missouri,” said Cynthia Dean, chief executive officer of Missouri Bootheel Regional Consortium, one of Bootheel Babies and Families’ partner organizations.

According to Central Intelligence Agency statistics for 2015, Libya’s IMR is 11.48 per 1,000 live births — less than Pemiscot County’s IMR of 11.7.

“This rate is often used as an indicator of the level of health in a country,” the CIA’s webpage states.

Since 2003, more than 200 babies have died in the Bootheel — most of them from factors related to premature births and low birth-weight illnesses or suffocation.

“That’s 10 classrooms of children who never got to celebrate their first birthday or attend the first day of kindergarten,” Dean said.

Over 1,200 surveys were done in the Bootheel to identify what the community felt was priority in addressing infant mortality, according to Rachelle Johnson, Mississippi County Health Department administrator.

“Bootheel Babies and Families has a steering committee of volunteers who meet once a month and have identified three areas that need focusing on,” Johnson said. “Those three areas are safe sleep, substance abuse and pre-/postnatal care.”

In the last two years, 16 deaths were due to illnesses, such as birth asphyxia and congenital anomaly, and 14 babies died due to suffocation from sleep-surface sharing, soft bedding and positional asphyxia, according to Bootheel Babies statistics. The two causes accounted for 30 out of 34 Bootheel infant deaths.

SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) accounted for the rest.

An unhealthy lifestyle that includes a poor diet and bad habits such as smoking can affect the baby’s health greatly during pregnancy. Also, many areas of the Bootheel do not have dedicated health services, which makes it hard for mothers to get prenatal and postnatal care.

Bootheel Babies attribute infant deaths to several other factors, many of which can be narrowed down to a common denominator — poverty.

Poverty exposes families to economic challenges such as poorer housing conditions and nutrition, lack of community infrastructure, frequent changes to government policies regarding public programs and access to health care.

Education and behavioral choices are also factors.

Only 10 percent of people from low-income families have bachelor’s degrees, according to a White House report.