Kansas City aims to fight high infant mortality rate

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City health officials are trying to determine why the city's infant mortality rate is nearly three times higher than the country's lowest rate in San Jose, Calif.

In one neighborhood in Kansas City's urban core, babies die at a rate more than double the national figure and close to that of some Third World countries.

Amanda Washington lives in that neighborhood, and she knows about losing an infant. Her son died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in 1998.

Like Washington, some new mothers living in Kansas City's urban neighborhoods often overlook health advisories in the midst of poverty, joblessness and other struggles.

Statistics show that in Kansas City, black babies die at a rate double that of white babies but the problem appears to result more from poverty than race.

A string of West Virginia counties, in the rural, mostly white Appalachian hill country, has rates nearly as high as Kansas City's worst areas.

In Kansas City, some are pushing to create a board to investigate each infant death. Also, Kansas City is one of 15 cities working with the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization to reduce infant mortality, especially in urban neighborhoods.

According to the Kansas City Health Department, the area where Amanda Washington lives had an infant mortality rate of 16.4 from 1996 to 2000 -- meaning that more than 16 of every 1,000 babies died before their first birthday.