US infant mortality increasing ?

[Jurriaan Bendien <bendien@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Daniel Yee (Associated Press)  writer drew my attention to the fact that,
although U.S. life expectancy reached an all-time high of 77.4 years in
2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the American
infant mortality rate (chance of dying between birth and exactly one year of
age expressed per 1,000 live births) "climbed from 6.8 deaths per 1,000 live
births in 2001 to 7.0 deaths per 1,000 in 2002". The last time the infant
mortality rate rose was in 1958.

By comparison, the infant mortality rate in Iraq is at least 107 per 1,000
live births (2001 UNICEF estimate). US international development assistance
is around .02 percent of its GNP. Defence and homeland security spending
will be about 3.6 percent of GDP in 2004.

Last year, the 46 percent growth in US defense spending added about 1.7
percent to US GDP. Total real US production is stagnating, around a quarter
of production capacity is not used, and most of the "economic growth" is
attributable either defence spending, middleclass and elite consumption,
luxury consumption or capital gains on asset values.

CDC suggests the 2002 rise in American infant mortality may be a one-time
blip, and the US infant mortality rate for 2003 is expected to drop.
Previous CDC research suggested the recent rise in infant mortality may
reflect the long trend among American women toward delaying motherhood,
because:

(1) more women have put off having their first child until their 30s or 40s,
at which time they are more likely to have babies with birth defects or
other potentially deadly complications;

(2) older women are more likely to use fertility drugs to get pregnant,
which often lead to twins, triplets and other multiple births that carry a
higher risk of premature labor and low birthweight;

(3) more babies are being born prematurely or at low birthweights, because
more doctors are inducing labor and using Caesarean sections for delivery.
Multiple births climbed more than 400 percent between 1980 and 1998 because
of fertility treatments by older women.

The three most important causes of infant mortality in the USA are birth
defects, low birth weight/pre-term birth, and sudden infant death syndrome.
Congenital malformations account for an increasing proportion of infant
deaths in both developed and developing countries these days, but whereas
infant mortality attributable to congenital anomalies is higher in poorer
countries,  as a proportion of infant deaths it is greater and increasing in
wealthier countries.

The amount of money spent in the United States per capita, per year on
international family planning is around one and a half dollars. For every
dollar spent on family planning, governments can save up to $16 in reduced
expenditures in health, education, and social services. Unfortunately
christianist-fundamentalist ideology seems to get in the way of sensible
policies.

"Fordist" capitalism established the "family wage" concept, but since the
modal real buying power of the working class has stagnated or fallen against
rising basic costs of living in "post-Fordist" capitalism, female worker's
wage labour hasn't just been a question of "emancipation", but also one of
economic necessity for couples, since the male workers' wage is inadequate
to support a family lifestyle on its own. If an increasing proportion of
members of families defined as below the poverty level is working for a wage
or salary, this must also apply to families with incomes above the poverty
level, but below a professional middleclass salary. It is also this economic
necessity, that plays an important role in delaying the birth of the first
child until later in life, and not just the "life choices" made within the
framework of economic necessity.

Note: according to Yee, the CDC statistician said homicides had decreased 17
percent in 2002, "largely because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks the year
before". When only non-terrorism homicides were counted, the U.S. rate
dropped 3.3 percent, the CDC said.

Jurriaan