Infant mortality is the death of an infant in the first year of life. Infant mortality can be subdivided into neonatal death, referring to deaths in the first 27 days of life, and post-neonatal death, referring to deaths after 28 days of life.

Congenital malformations, preterm labor & low birth weight, and SIDs

Infant mortality is an epidemiological indicator that is recognized as a very important measure of the level of health care in a country because it is directly linked with the health status of infants, children, and pregnant women as well as access to medical care, socioeconomic conditions, and public health practices.

The Children’s Health Act of 2000 (P. L. 106-310) amended the Public Health Service Act to provide “such sums as necessary” for continuation and expansion of a distinct Healthy Start program of grants that use community-designed and evidence-supported strategies aimed at reducing infant mortality and improving perinatal outcomes in project areas with high annual rates of infant mortality.

To reduce the factors that contribute to the Nation’s high infant mortality rate, particularly between African-American and other disparate minority groups, Healthy Start (HS) provides intensive services tailored to the needs of high risk pregnant women, infants and mothers in geographically, racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse communities with exceptionally high rates of infant mortality.

Through the implementation of evidence-based practices and innovative community-driven interventions, HS works with individual communities to build upon their resources (outreach, health education, case management, utilization of prenatal/postnatal care) to improve the quality of and access to health care for women and infants at both service and system levels. At the service level, beginning with direct outreach by community health workers to women at high risk, HS projects ensure that the mothers and infants have ongoing sources of primary and preventive health care and that their basic needs (housing, psychosocial, nutritional and educational support and job skill building) are met. Following risk assessments and screening for perinatal depression and other risk factors, case managers provide linkages with appropriate services and health education for risk reduction and prevention.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary Federal agency for improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable.

Comprising five bureaus and 12 offices, HRSA provides leadership and financial support to health care providers in every state and U.S. territory. HRSA grantees provide health care to uninsured people, people living with HIV/AIDS, and pregnant women, mothers and children. They train health professionals and improve systems of care in rural communities.

HRSA oversees organ, tissue and bone marrow donation. It supports programs that prepare against bioterrorism, compensate individuals harmed by vaccination, and maintains databases that protect against health care malpractice and health care waste, fraud and abuse. Since 1943 the agencies that were HRSA precursors have worked to improve the health of needy people.

HRSA was created in 1982, when the Health Resources Administration and the Health Services Administration were merged.

There are government programs that can help you to get regular checkups during your pregnancy such as Medicaid. Medicaid offers many services to pregnant women. It will pay for:

• Visits to your doctor or nurse-midwife Treatment,
• Counseling, and medicine for HIV or AIDS-infected mothers
• Visits to the dentist while you are pregnant
• The delivery of your baby
• Checkups for you and your baby after your baby is born
• Family planning and birth control help after your baby is born

SCHIP is a free or low-cost health insurance program for women who cannot afford medical coverage, but are not eligible for Medicaid.

During pregnancy it is necessary to go to monthly check-ups with your doctor. As you get closer to delivery, the check-ups will become more frequent to monitor the health of you and the baby.

While you are pregnant you should not take any medicines even vitamins or natural herbs without talking to your doctor first.

• No periods
• Breast getting bigger and feeling sore
• Area around your nipple getting darker
• Heartburn
• Gas Bloating
• Strong taste for certain foods and a dislike for certain foods
• Need to urinate more
• Sick to your stomach, maybe even vomiting

• Smoking
• Drinking beer, wine, or alcohol
• Drugs
• Taking medicines, even home remedies, vitamins, or herbs without talking to your doctor

• See a doctor or midwife as soon as you know that you’re pregnant
• Go to your regularly monthly check-ups
• Drink plenty of water
• Cut back on caffeine
• Take folic acid right away
• Take prenatal vitamins
• Eat healthy

Determine your doctor by the way you feel after your first appointment by asking yourself some questions:

• Did I feel good after I met with the doctor, midwife, or nurse
• Was I treated like I mattered
• Was there enough time for me to ask questions?
• Were my questions answered?
• Do I know who to call and what to do in an emergency?
• Was everything clear and easy for me to understand?

• Exercise
• Walk whenever you can
• Shut your eyes and take deep breaths
• Find a quiet place, even if it’s the bathroom, and take a daily time-out
• Eat healthy foods

• You get a chance to interact with other pregnant women
• It gives you another place to get facts about pregnancy and to ask questions
• It gives you new ways to relax by showing you techniques on breathing that will help you during labor and reduces your stress
• It will give you a better chance at a less painful labor

• It has all of the nutrients your baby needs to grow
• It’s easier on tiny tummies
• It can keep your baby healthy. Breastfed babies get sick much less often.

When labor comes too early, after 20 weeks and before the 37th week

• Smoking
• Drinking
• Drug abuse
• Not gaining enough weight
• An unhealthy diet
• Stress
• Not enough water
• Lifting too much
• Infections
• Incompetent cervix
• Placenta previa
• A long-term illness
• Twins or more
• History of premature babies

Your baby will need a checkup 1 or 2 weeks after birth and will need regular checkups through the first year. After that, they will need to get a checkup once a year.