Infant mortality rates continue to rise in minority communities across New York City even as the citywide rate has decreased.
The city’s infant mortality rate (IMR) declined from 6.5 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2003 to 5.9 deaths in 2006. However, the problem persists in double digit proportions in brown and black neighborhoods throughout the city.
A breakdown of data from the New York City Department of Health’s Bureau of Vital Statistics shows that for 2006 the infant mortality rate in the Bronx communities of Mott Haven was 12.7 and 9.6 in Morrisania. In Central Harlem (North Manhattan) the figure was 11.0, while over in the Rockaways, Queens, the IMR was 7.4. In Brooklyn the rate was 11.0 in Brownsville; in East New York, 10.5; Williamsbridge, 11.6; and East Flatbush, 7.3. IMR is calculated as the number of infant deaths during a calendar year per 1,000 live births during the same year.
These largely minority communities also have the distinction of having a host of social and economic ills, including high levels of crime, poverty, poor housing, sub-standard healthcare and lower educational achievements. They are also home to large immigrant communities from the Caribbean and Latin America. In some cases, it is believed language barriers coupled with cultural factors may be deterrents in accessing healthcare, which is a complex system in the United States.
The organization Haitian Americans United for Progress, in Queens, sees this problem frequently among Haitian immigrants whom they serve. “The system is different in Haiti. They have midwives. Most people speak Creole and they need someone to interpret for them. A lot of the time they will forgo healthcare until later in the pregnancy, waiting sometimes until they give birth,” says Kathy Momperousse, assistant coordinator of health services at the agency.
Health practitioners say pre-conception and pre-natal problems may later present themselves resulting in infant deaths.
Low birth weight
Low birth weight accounts for 65 percent of infant mortality cases in poor city neighborhoods. In 2006, one in 11 infants (8.9 percent) were born below weight – that is weighing less than five and a half pounds.
In a number of high-risk areas in Queens the figures were even more glaring. The low birth weight rate in the Rockaways was 11.7; Queens Village 11.4; Howard Beach 11.2; and St. Albans, Jamaica, 10.9.
To address this dire problem, a group of over 50 community-based maternal and child health care providers have formed an umbrella organization called the Citywide Coalition to End Infant Mortality and have come up with a six-point plan.
