In 2024, Mississippi’s infant mortality rate was recorded at a rate of 9.7 deaths per 1,000 births within their first year of life, or roughly one death out of every 100 babies born.
That puts the state on par with countries like Albania, Fiji and Barbados which had an infant mortality rate of 10.3, 9.7 and 9.6, respectively, according to the CIA’s World Factbook.
The rate for the U.S. in 2024 is 5.5, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This rate caused the Mississippi Department of Health to declare the issue a public health emergency Aug. 21.
“It’s a complicated issue that’s requiring a lot of complicated solutions,” State Health Officer Dan Edney told The Dispatch. “… And we already had projects in the works that just based on the numbers we were seeing, we needed to push harder and faster (which) the emergency declaration allows us to do.”
The leading factors for Mississippi’s high death rate from 2020 to 2024 were maternal complications during the pregnancy, sudden infant death syndrome, disorders related to low birth weight or low gestation period and congenital malformations or deformations, according to data with MSDH.
“(Our goal is) fewer dead babies, for sure, and that we not only get off the bottom for infant mortality, but we get off the radar (and) that we are improving our outcomes,” Edney said. “… It really is an all-hands-on-deck approach.”
From 2020 and 2024, the Golden Triangle saw 80 infant deaths out of 1,567 born, according to data from MSDH. Lowndes County had 40 deaths, while Oktibbeha and Clay counties had 27 and 13, respectively.
Part of the issue in some cases is the lack of health care options for pregnant women across the state, Bradley Rhodes, director of women’s and pediatric services at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle, told The Dispatch.
“Throughout the state, we have maternity care deserts,” Rhodes said. “We have areas (where) women don’t have access to prenatal and preconception care, and so they’re at higher risk of having an infant mortality than your average person who’s able to access care.”
Maternity care deserts
More than half of Mississippi counties in the state are considered maternity care deserts, according to data from the March of Dimes, a nonprofit focused on maternal and infant health risks and death. A maternity care desert is a county with a lack of access to maternity care services like hospitals, obstetrics providers or birthing services, the March of Dimes website said.
The lack of care causes issues for mothers who need a provider, especially those whose baby is born prematurely or with a genetic issue, said Dr. Ira Holla, assistant professor of neonatology and quality director of the University of Mississippi Medical Center Division of Newborn Medicine.
“One of the things that we see often, in fact in a majority of our babies that we take care of, (is) their moms have very limited access to prenatal care,” Holla said. “… You need at least five visits during your pregnancy to qualify as adequate prenatal care, but most of our moms … have limited access.”
Holla, who works in the neonatal intensive care unit at UMMC, said this is often the case for mothers who come to the unit with babies who are born prematurely or those that contracted an illness soon after birth.
Depending on the severity of the issue, mothers and their babies sometimes have to fly or ride by ambulance from counties across the state to UMMC, Holla said. It is the only hospital in the state with a Level 4 NICU, which addresses the highest level of care, she said.
“Very often they’re born in hospitals that don’t even have equipment small enough for these babies,” Holla said. “(They’ve been) born in a general ER or an urgent care, and so they’re flown in, and that kind of trauma – of not getting resuscitated adequately with the correct kind of equipment, with the correct skill – sets these babies up for failure.”
Holla also said she often sees a slight majority of the NICU filled with Black babies in need of care, compared to other babies of other races. MSDH reported the rate among Black babies in 2024 was 15.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, which was the highest among all races in the state.
That is on par with nations like Honduras, Syria and Trinidad and Tobago.
Edney pointed to inaccessible care and low socioeconomic status as contributing factors.
“Your zip code will powerfully predict what your outcomes are, irrespective of what your income is,” Edney said. “It’s more powerful than income is, what your zip code is, but poverty drives the bus, as we all know in Mississippi. And more than 80% of these deaths are among low income families, predominantly (Mississippi’s) African American population.”
Holla said the other issue that exists for many of these babies is ensuring proper care is maintained when they are released from the NICU.
“Premature babies who’ve been in the NICU for a prolonged course, often need subspecialty follow up,” Holla said. “… We have a few areas through the state where you have clinics that some of these children can follow up at, but for the majority of these subspecialty clinics, they do have to come back to Jackson. … The same sort of roadblocks that prevented mom from having access to prenatal care now become roadblocks for the baby or the child to getting access to the care they need.”
The first year of care
Rhodes said even for healthy babies, proper care at home is just as important as care in the delivery room, which is why general education on the leading factors contributing to high mortability rates, like SIDS and cosleeping, is so necessary.
“The more you know before you conceive, during your pregnancy and then before you take that newborn home, the safer you’re going to be able to keep them,” Rhodes said. “Unfortunately, if we see them back and they’ve already encountered one of these issues, It’s not a great outcome. So our goal is to prevent it on the front end.”
Rhodes said education for new mothers needs to be a top priority in the state to ensure that those leaving the hospital know the best practices for raising their baby and for taking care of them at home.
Edney said MSDH is working to solve these issues by creating a standardized level of care system across the state, improving outreach efforts in those maternity care deserts and delivering cribs to families in financial need.
“We know these things will work,” Edney said. “We’re following the evidence. We’re letting the data drive us. We’re not just throwing money at the problem. We’re trying to be strategic with our investments, with an expected return on that investment, not in money, but in lives.”
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
