Every baby deserves a first birthday.
 
But too many – nearly 1,000 – Michigan infants die every year in their first 12 months of life, tragedies that disproportionately affect families of color and puts Michigan among the states with the worst infant mortality rates.

So, we congratulate Governor Rick Snyder on his statements at the opening of an important Infant Mortality Summit in Ypsilanti on October 17: “We’ve got this (infant mortality) up on our dashboard,” Snyder said in his summit address. “On the state dashboard, not just the health and wellness dashboard, because this is something we really need to do a better job on that is an important indicator of how well our state is. And more important, we’re talking about real lives.”

Michigan’s infant mortality rate is about eight per 1,000 live births, compared to a national average of seven deaths per 1,000 live births. As bad as that is, Michigan has gained ground over past several years, reducing the rate from about 10 deaths per 1,000 live births.

But, as a recent Race Matters report from Michigan’s Children says, that reduction in infant deaths was driven mostly by a large drop in infant mortality for white babies. Today, Hispanic babies die at nearly twice the rate of white babies and African American babies die at three times the rate of white babies.

That disparity is shocking, but reflects inequities that create barriers to a healthy life for children of color. Systemic policies, practices and stereotypes work against racial and ethnic minorities, including women of child-bearing age. Studies to better understand the high infant mortality rate among black infants have found that life experiences and covert racism – as opposed to blatant or overt racism – increases preterm births.

How so, you might ask. Covert racism has been linked to sustained, elevated cortisol hormone levels in the human body. High levels of cortisol are indicators of high stress which, in turn, can impact fetuses, leading to premature birth and low birth weight.

And then there are structural barriers for young women of color to lead healthy lifestyles – less access to a quality education or employment, fewer opportunities to buy fresh produce and to find safe places to exercise, and no health insurance.

To level the playing field – and to ensure that more babies are born healthy and live to see their first birthdays – policymakers must better understand how current policies impact racial-ethnic disparities and how improved policy can reduce the disparities in outcomes for mothers and babies.

One thing the Legislature can do is to increase Medicaid provider payments to the same level as Medicare and create financial incentives for the full range of health services needed by low-income women and young children. There is an acute shortage of specialty doctors (i.e., obstetricians, gynecologists and pediatricians) and few of them are willing to accept patients on Medicaid because it pays only a percentage of what it costs to provide services.  Although there would be higher costs initially, taxpayers save money by lowering emergency room use by low-income families and by reducing developmental and cognitive delays in children that result in the need for special education and lower educational achievement.

As the Governor said, one of the best ways to measure the health of our state is to measure how healthy our children are.  And, according to the data gathered by Michigan’s Children and the governor’s own dashboard, our high infant mortality rates show that Michigan is an unhealthy state for many infants, particularly for children from families of color.

Simply talking about high infant mortality rates won’t save the lives of babies. Now is the time for citizens to demand that the Governor and the Legislature work with health care providers, insurers, community groups and non-profit organizations to support programs that provide pregnant women and infants with what they need to thrive.