View Full Version : Infant mortality as a measure of healthcare.
Sarah
09-05-2006, 02:48 AM
It is common when looking at the status of a country and it's standard of living to look at infant mortality. The United States ranks at an abyssmal 36 (#34 and #35 are Cuba and Taiwan!)!!!
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Not only that, it has the second worst rates of death in the first 24 hours of life.
"American babies are three times more likely to die in their first month as children born in Japan, and newborn mortality is 2.5 times higher in the United States than in Finland, Iceland or Norway, Save the Children researchers found.
Only Latvia, with six deaths per 1,000 live births, has a higher death rate for newborns than the United States, which is tied near the bottom of industrialized nations with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with five deaths per 1,000 births.
'The United States has more neonatologists and neonatal intensive care beds per person than Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, but its newborn rate is higher than any of those countries," said the annual State of the World's Mothers report.' "
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What's a biggest difference here? Is it trained physicians? Is it number of hospitals? No, it's neither. It's access to affordable healthcare. It's access to education and contraception. It's UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE!
The right puts so much time and effort into anti-choice. How about the health of pregnant women and their unborn babies? How about prevention? How about education? How about some of our HARD EARNED TAX DOLLARS going toward universal healthcare instead of continued, unaccounted spending by the Pentagon? How about taking care of small businesses by removing the burden of healthcare costs? It shouldn't be an employer's job. It belongs to the government.
"It is common when looking at the status of a country and it's standard of living to look at infant mortality."
It's also stupid.
From what I hear women who give birth in American prisons have a low infant mortality rate but that doesn't mean their kid is going to live a good life.
dr.strangelove
09-05-2006, 12:43 PM
"It is common when looking at the status of a country and it's standard of living to look at infant mortality."
It's also stupid.
From what I hear women who give birth in American prisons have a low infant mortality rate but that doesn't mean their kid is going to live a good life.
No, but it enforces the point. Women in prison have access to pre-natal care, which is why they have a lower infant mortality rate. Prison healthcare is notoriously bad, yet it still provides a far low infant mortality rate. Proper nutrician and pre-natal care is the only way to improve our shocking poor healthy infant birth record (I was very surprised it is as poor as the OP states).
Starving moms, lack of cheap or free pre-natal visits and the ability for risk pregnancies to get the bed rest and treatment then need all contribute to this. The "prison moms numbers" enforce the point: that we need free healthcare and nutrician for all moms to be.
No, but it enforces the point. Women in prison have access to pre-natal care, which is why they have a lower infant mortality rate. Prison healthcare is notoriously bad, yet it still provides a far low infant mortality rate. Proper nutrician and pre-natal care is the only way to improve our shocking poor healthy infant birth record (I was very surprised it is as poor as the OP states).
Starving moms, lack of cheap or free pre-natal visits and the ability for risk pregnancies to get the bed rest and treatment then need all contribute to this. The "prison moms numbers" enforce the point: that we need free healthcare and nutrician for all moms to be.
Infant mortality rate should not be the only mesurement used though when comparing countries standards of living.
dr.strangelove
09-05-2006, 02:02 PM
Infant mortality rate should not be the only mesurement used though when comparing countries standards of living.
Of course not. I don't think anyone intends this to be the only standard to be applied. It is illustrative of the problem though. You will not find many physicians who will argue that good pre-natal care will not have an inverse impact on infant mortality.
IMHO, It is insane that we do not provide pregnant women with free pre-natal care. We all care so much about abortion and make it one of THE issues on both sides of nearly every national campaign. Yet once poor women decide to have children, there is no low cost or free pre-natal care available to them to ensure a healthy child. No one I recall has ever made this one of their issues. I would think that one who is anti-choice and wants to ensure all women who are pregnant carry the children to term and birth, would also want to ensure that the children are healthy. I would think anyone who is pro-choice would also want women who choose to keep the child to have access to free or low cost pre-natal healthcare too. I think this should be something we can all agree on. Fight about the abortion issue later, but lets all agree that women who are having children should have access to healthcare; access on both an affordability and availability basis.
Of course not. I don't think anyone intends this to be the only standard to be applied. It is illustrative of the problem though. You will not find many physicians who will argue that good pre-natal care will not have an inverse impact on infant mortality....
Oh ok.
I've run into people in the past who claim Cuba is a better place than America because of their low Infant mortality rate.
talidapali
09-05-2006, 03:08 PM
Oh ok.
I've run into people in the past who claim Cuba is a better place than America because of their low Infant mortality rate.
It's not just the infant mortality rate that defines the state of healthcare in America, but that one statistic shows how little the right values human life in reality. If the conservative Christians in this country truly did care about human life and value it, they would be screaming for universal healthcare. If the Republican party truly was the party that believed in the sanctity of human life and valued it, they would have funded universal healthcare a long time ago rather than balk and block such legislation at every turn.
It's not just the infant mortality rate that defines the state of healthcare in America, but that one statistic shows how little the right values human life in reality. If the conservative Christians in this country truly did care about human life and value it, they would be screaming for universal healthcare. If the Republican party truly was the party that believed in the sanctity of human life and valued it, they would have funded universal healthcare a long time ago rather than balk and block such legislation at every turn.
Your preaching to the choir when it comes to how little the GOP cares about Human life.
dr.strangelove
09-05-2006, 03:14 PM
Your preaching to the choir when it comes to how little the GOP cares about Human life.
I think we all agree there.
talidapali
09-05-2006, 03:42 PM
Your preaching to the choir when it comes to how little the GOP cares about Human life.
I know, but sometimes it just feels good to be able to say it.
I know, but sometimes it just feels good to be able to say it.
I hope you'll enjoy this toon then.
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Sarah
09-05-2006, 10:57 PM
Oh ok.
I've run into people in the past who claim Cuba is a better place than America because of their low Infant mortality rate.
Cuba is likely a safer place for an extremely poor infant or child to live, but for an educated adult who aspires to carving out a life for oneself, obviously Cuba is not a better place to live. The argument here was that we can and should do better.
Politics is a spectrum and extremism in either Capitalism or Communism often has the same results- concentration of wealth in the hands of the very few.
Extremism in anything- politics, religion, or nationalism itself leads to closed minds and certainly isn't beneficial for anyone in such a society as a whole.
homerow
09-05-2006, 10:59 PM
Oh ok.
I've run into people in the past who claim Cuba is a better place than America because of their low Infant mortality rate.
i find that hard to believe.
Sarah
09-05-2006, 11:01 PM
It's not just the infant mortality rate that defines the state of healthcare in America, but that one statistic shows how little the right values human life in reality. If the conservative Christians in this country truly did care about human life and value it, they would be screaming for universal healthcare. If the Republican party truly was the party that believed in the sanctity of human life and valued it, they would have funded universal healthcare a long time ago rather than balk and block such legislation at every turn.
If they were pro-business (other than large corporations and its shareholders), they'd also believe in universal healthcare. They believe in utilizating whatever they pick and choose out of the Bible to enhance not only their control over others, but the sanctity of little more than their own wallets.
cezebrgr
09-10-2006, 08:15 PM
Prenatal nutrition and the mental heath of infants.
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