During pregnancy and birth, there are many reasons why some infants have a higher mortality rate than other infants. Two in particular that I find to be most prevalent are the socioeconomic status of the mother/parents taking care of the infant and also the overall health of the mother that has carried the infant.

Socioeconomic status is an external but detrimental factor of infant mortality if not sustainable to cover health problems the infant may encounter before, during, and after birth. If the mother is on her own supporting the child financially, she may be at a higher risk of suffering an infant death if there isn’t much support due to a lack of funds. In an article related to poverty and its connection with infant mortality rates, it is stated that “High poverty and very rural counties remained associated with term infant mortality independent of individual maternal sociodemographic, health and obstetric factors” (Mohamud et al. 2019). If the infant needed specific medication or treatment that the mother/parents couldn’t afford or keep up with, problems could rise and cause infant death due to their health conditions worsening. This issue compared to a financially secure mother who can use the money comfortably to fund for her infant to maintain good health with medication or treatment may have a higher chance of infant survival since she has better resources for health support towards the infant.

As for internal factors, the womb of the mother is a sanctuary for the fetus and it obtains all of its nutrients from the mother. With that being said, it is important for the mother to obtain good health and nutrition even before getting pregnant so the baby has a low chance of obtaining health problems due to the mother’s poor dietary choices. Besides diet, there are other factors within the mother that may raise health risks and infant mortality. These factors include the mother’s age, pre-pregnancy birth weight, and other intense health conditions that can hurt the infant. Teen moms are automatically put at high risk for pregnancy, and mothers that don’t take care of their bodies like they should (alcohol abuse, malnutrition, smoking, etc.) can raise the risk of infant mortality by relaying birth defects to the infant such as FAS and other health complications. In a nutrition textbook discussing infant health risks, the authors state that “Drugs of abuse such as methamphetamine and cocaine … impair fetal growth and development. Furthermore, they can cause preterm births, low infant birthweight, and sudden infant deaths” (DeBruyne and Pinna 290). On the contrary, mothers with lower health risks that keep up with good habits of nutrition, elimination of teratogens, and obtaining good health before, during, and after pregnancy are in a better position at avoiding infant mortality.

References

DeBruyne, L. K., & Pinna, K. (2020). Nutrition for Health and Health Care. Cengage.

Mohamoud, Y. A., Kirby, R. S., & Ehrenthal, D. B. (2019, January 22). Poverty, urban-rural classification and term infant mortality: A population-based multilevel analysis. BMC pregnancy and childbirth. Accessed March 20, 2023, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6343321/Links to an external site.