State says infant mortality rate up

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri's infant mortality rate increased to its highest rate in a decade in 2002, the state Department of Health and Senior Services said Tuesday.

The state's infant mortality rate last year jumped by 15 percent from 7.4 per 1,000 live births in 2001 to 8.5 last year.

The potential reasons for the infant mortality rate include increased efforts to resuscitate borderline infants with a low birth weight, an increase in the number of multiple births and a rise in the number of C-sections.